


We'll Run Free In The Shadows

by ImperialAxis



Category: RWBY, Shadowrun
Genre: Adam is cool actually, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Autistic Ruby Rose (RWBY), Body Modification, F/F, Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Romance, Salem is a major protagonist, Trans Blake Belladonna, Trans Ruby Rose (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26470330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialAxis/pseuds/ImperialAxis
Summary: Remnant. The only city on a dead world. Home to more than twenty billion people, this massive expanse of metal, earth, and blood is ruled solely by the many corporations that squeeze the life their employees in the name of productivity. However, Shadowrunners are independent. Thieves, mercenaries, detectives, assassins, spies, vigilantes, they will fill whatever role will pay. This is the story of four people from across Remnant who come together to form a shadowrunning team that changes their lives, and the lives of many others, forever.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Salem/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 32
Kudos: 94





	1. Farewell To You, My Sunlit World

**Author's Note:**

> much thanks to Alucard45 for beta reading this story
> 
> The magic and technology are largely based off of Shadowrun lore, but with a few of my own changes to make things work. Essence, for example, is a dumb mechanic that I will ignore.

###### Ruby

Ruby rubs her hands together excitedly as she eyes the large black van that pulls up at the meeting place she had recently arranged. Shopping day is probably her favourite day of the week. Usually it’s just salvaging to replace the parts she had used up or attain things she needed without having to pay the far higher black market price, but sometimes she had the fortune of uncovering entirely new ideas or rare and valuable technological gems visible only to the trained eye. It only takes a few seconds for her to slip into the spacious interior of the van and start rifling through the veritable mountains of scrap, searching for whatever she could get.

A sliding panel that separates the cab from the trunk slides open, revealing a bright blue shock of hair attached to a familiar face. “Hey Ruby, we got some good shit today. Sun called in a favor on the Guild quartermaster to get us first pick at a Tube straight from the Spire.”

That much was obvious from the start, she could feel that there was going to be some quality tech today in her artificial bones ever since she had woken up, but Ruby nods anyway. Every worthwhile piece of tech is quickly shoved into a rucksack. The parts sold by the Scavenger’s Guild are always broken, so they sell by the pound. By the time she’s found everything she needs and more than she knew she wanted, the readout indicates that there’s more than fifty pounds of scrap. Most of it is just for melting down and reforging, but there are plenty of intricate electronics that can be repaired and repurposed as well. 

The entire van lurches violently just as Ruby pulls out her scroll and sends the payment to her suppliers. Claws pierce the reinforced plasteel armor and flex menacingly as the driver hits the gas, hoping to lose his sudden attackers. 

It takes less than three seconds for Ruby to immerse herself in hot-sim virtual reality and open up the connection to her sweet Crescent Rose, a carefully networked and ever vigilant swarm of combat and spy drones connected to her through the virtual console at which she sits and directs them as one finely oiled machine. Attached to the van and desperately trying to get in is a large black quadrupedal robot, more than eight feet long and highly agile. But to her it’s just business as usual.

First a series of specially designed sonar pings confirm that there are no further enemies present in the area. Then atmospheric sensors calculate the trajectory required for a killing blow. And finally, a strategically placed drone with a built in heavy caliber long range sniper rifle takes aim and disables the creature attacking the van, the sound of its shot drowned out by the constant sound of the enclosed and vastly industrial Hive. All of this happens in less than the amount of time it takes for Neptune to start screaming.

“I got it.” Ruby calls out to Sun, and waits for him to bring the van to a stop so that she can collect her prize and be on her way to her workshop. An excellent haul on two accounts.

“Ugh, I never get to have any fun for myself when you’re around.” Neptune thanks Ruby in his own way, though he wouldn’t have the requisite knowledge to use the mostly intact beowulf corpse as anything other than more scrap to sell, had he scored the kill himself.

“You’re welcome.” Ruby swings the rucksack over her shoulder. “See you guys next week.” Then she heads back outside and detaches the twitching, leaking body from the van with a sharp tug, slinging it over her shoulder, where each end nearly reaches the ground.

They’re called Grimm. Probably because they look so menacing, with chromatic black bodies, twisted into bestial shapes that gush with sickly colored biomedical fluids and stalk the Undersides from the shadows, like something out of the classic fairy tales, the ones that were meant to scare kids off from the danger of the unknown. Supposedly, they’re an automated supplement to law enforcement in poorer districts that are less worth spending manpower on. Made for hunting and capturing known criminals and debtors. In reality, they’re there to quash dissent and harvest anyone who won’t be missed for experimentation, or maybe just organ reselling, cyberware still doesn’t do as good of a job as a graft of the real thing when it comes to the liver, lungs, kidneys, intestines, even parts of the brain. And maintaining just one Grimm is far cheaper than growing a clone. Usually their bodies are designed to perfectly fit one torso, and cleanly sever the arms and legs that would serve no purpose to their gentile overlords. Though by comparing the very small fraction of people and organizations who could afford such measures to the sheer teeming vastness of the thirty billion people throughout the city of Remnant, there were more often than not plenty of true criminals present in any one Hive to fulfill quotas.

Unlike the more squishy organs however, cyberware limbs are easy. The only thing left to perfect further is the power source, and to attempt to pack as many extra features in as possible. Those are all taken care of in engineering labs, no live test subjects required. Ruby would know, considering that she’d designed and installed four on herself, all replete with better than biological haptic feedback, dexterity, and strength. 

The second thing to go had been her skin. Replaced with a mesh that was softer, without body hair, decently bladeproof, and color customizable. Most of the time she stuck with the same dark brown complexion as her mom, but having a disguise at will was never a bad thing. It could also look pretty badass when she felt like turning her skin into a canvas of one kind or another, just to add some color to the dull gray underground landscape that constantly surrounded her.

As accustomed as Ruby was to dealing with the occasional Grimm, it was also important not to stick around in one place after taking one out, lest they end up ganging up on her. Most of the Grimm that patrol the streets are meant to capture defenseless individuals, but when one of their own dies, far more dangerous models, or even a pack sometimes come to investigate.

So she gave one last wave at the customary black van as it vanished from her sight before she began jogging a route back to her workshop through the complex, nearly identical maze of large streets all very similar to one another that defined the plebian districts of any Hive, then through small streets all very similar to one another while carrying about four hundred pounds of Grimm across her back. Beowolves were one of the lighter, simpler models, and weren’t really made out of much more than simple circuitry, metal, and crude medical equipment. Still, you could never have enough spare circuit boards or metal plating.

###### Weiss

Atlas. The shining crown of Remnant, the only place above ground, where the streets are quite literally paved with gold and every structure grows ever more opulent as they grow nearer to the center. At the center of a hollow cone ten miles in radius and a mile tall lies the most grandiose, complicated structure in all of Remnant, the Schnee Manor.

Combining living space, business headquarters, and heavily guarded industrial control center, the Schnee Manor wraps itself around the very tip of the Heat Sink, the massive geothermal power plant that powers nearly all the city of Remnant. The Schnee Technology corporation is the most powerful megacorp of all. Certainly, the massive machines that recycle air and water, and control the climate of ever sector are powered by their own private heavily guarded nuclear reactors, but without the Heat Sink there would be no power for the Tubes, for growing food, or to run the massive industrial and mining machines that power the advanced technological economy of the city of Remnant.

For one person, the Schnee Manor also serves as a prison. Weiss Schnee sighs as she closes the curtains on her bedroom window. Despite her elevated position, she’s never seen what the world looks like beyond the vast dome that insulates Remnant against the supposed vast clouds of toxic air and radioactive dust that cover the rest of the planet. Not that it really matters, given that it’s the only thing she can imagine that’s worse than being right here, right now. 

It’s okay though, because that’s about to change. Weiss carefully double- triple- and quadruple-checks the massive summoning circle and inscribed runes that now take up a large portion of her bedroom. She’s a savant of a shaman, as is anyone with Schnee blood, and has more than enough raw magical power to perform an ordinary summoning without any of the various safety nets and power foci that are part of her trade.

This, however, is to be no ordinary summoning. Weiss intends for it to be the last she ever performs from within the vast confines of her family’s personal prison. She intends to leave on her own terms, abdicating her position as heiress to her brother, much as Winter did to her by joining Mantle Military Services, the largest mercenary corporation in Remnant. Only she chooses to reject the posh, privileged options that lay before her in favor of cutting her own path forward. By whatever means necessary. Today she intends to form a contract with a familiar.

There is no wavering in her intentions as she takes her seat within the circle. Its purpose is to reduce the strain on herself, and protect her from magical whiplash. There’s probably going to be a lot of whiplash. The more powerful the spirit, the bigger the whiplash, after all. And Weiss intends to go for the most powerful spirit she can find.

The process by which a shaman summons a spirit is a strange one. Time either passes in the blink of an eye, or at an agonising crawl as the self is separated from the body in search of it’s target. Weiss is practiced enough that it only takes her a few minutes of meditation to sink the long tendrils of her magical awareness into the Ether, the strange world in which all manner of unknown and unknowable magical creatures exist. Those that can be summoned are easily distinguishable to the trained sense of a shaman, but she chose to ignore many of those spirits which are most easily found and instead dug deeper, further, in search of the strongest possible subjects.

Not until she could feel the orichalcum focus that is spread throughout the summoning circle more than halfway burnt through does Weiss settle for a spirit. She wraps the tendrils of her magic around the brightest spark of magical power in her sight and begins to drag it up to reality. It struggles against her, and she exerts herself in turn, channeling more, more power into ensnaring the spirit she desired. A battle of wills that holds no true concept of time ensues, one in which Weiss is eventually successful.

Weiss’ awareness returns to her body with a start that sends her sprawling onto her back and causes her to hit her head against the hard wooden floor. She groans and forces open her eyes as she sits up. Now that the spirit is here she needs to arrange a contract quickly. As her vision comes back into focus she realizes that the spirit before her is unlike any she had seen before. Normally they are obviously ethereal in their appearance, even to her, who was especially capable of seeing them, but this one appears to be entirely tangible, even if it’s appearance could never be mistaken for that of a human.

“What is this that stands before me?” The spirit is humanoid in appearance, with utterly white skin interlaced with dark black veins, and wearing a black robe that left hands and arms interlaced with more black veins and dark claws exposed, as well as a black cloak, trimmed with red.

“I am Weiss Schnee, and I would seek you as a familiar.” Weiss stands, straightens her dress, and bows deeply to the spirit. Her body feels like it’s on fire, her head feels as if it might explode with pressure, and her entire being is wracked with exhaustion from summoning a spirit this powerful. She had never felt better.

“My name is Salem.” Salem returns the obligatory greeting. She looks around and scoffs, no doubt perceiving much more than just the room in which she has been summoned. “You would see me bound indefinitely to a world such as this?”

“Atlas is not where I intend to spend my days. It is in fact the reason why I have summoned you. My desire is to leave this shallow life behind and claim one of my own making.”

Salem laughs. Deep, belly-aching, rumbling laughter that is clearly derisive in nature. Once enough time has passed that there could be no misunderstand of her deliberate insult, she straightens herself out and speaks once again. “There was a time in which I was eager to call members of your species master. When humanity and its sister peoples brought forth wonders the likes of which the universe had never seen, and spread wisdom and life wherever they tread. Now look at you, insects scrabbling to reclaim the glory of what was once theirs by immersing their own kin deeper in the filth you yourselves have created, all in the name of self-satisfaction. I will not claim that the beings of the Ether or the Resonance Realms exist in harmony, but we are far superior to this self-cannibalizing atrocity of a world.”

“I know nothing of this past of which you speak, but what you describe reflects a future that I would desire to create. If you are willing to work with me it may be possible to achieve it. Clearly, you possess knowledge greater than any spirit I have summoned before.” Weiss is not used to engaging in entire conversations with spirits, but this one is quite fascinating. Ordinarily spirits are nearly animalistic in nature, and will agree to perform a small number of services before returning to the Ether in which they prefer to dwell. She had expected something far more simplistic from the negotiation of a contract, such as the provision of certain sacrifices or doing of certain deeds. Not the lofty and expository ramblings of a being that seemed to have incomparable knowledge of the past.

An illusory glass of wine appears in Salem’s hand, and she sips it contemplatively. “I know your bloodline. One of your ancestors was in fact the first woman to summon me to the material plane. She introduced me to certain... indulgences that I have since acquired a taste for. That was long ago, before the Golden Age, and it has been ever so long since I have had an opportunity to partake, being powerful enough to resist all but the most skilled of shamans. So very well, these will be my conditions: you will concede to me twenty-four hours of full bodily control every week, in increments of my choosing. I will be required to notify you of the beginning and duration of these increments three hours in advance. Beyond that, I expect you to work towards a purpose by which humanity is bettered, else I shall retain the right to end the contract and return to the Ether.”

It’s a terrible deal, Weiss knows that. But surrendering more than a seventh of her life is far better than not having a life to begin with, so she nods and speaks the words to seal the contract. “By the right of my blood and soul, I accept this contract, and bind myself by its terms.” Weiss speaks the words, and immediately she feels another surge of power welling up within her, roiling beneath her chest in anticipation.

“By the linking of blood and magic, I accept this contract, and bind myself as your familiar, to aid you and your goals with the full weight of my might and wisdom.” Salems’ lips twist into an almost cruel smile as a great rush of magical power is exchanged between them, great glowing lines of force reach out and bind them together, sending renewed burning pain through Weiss’ chest.

The magic dissipates in the moment the contract seals, and Weiss collapses to the ground, satisfied. She registers only a brief moment of severe pain and the glimpse of a deathly pale hand cradling her face before losing consciousness.

###### Blake

“You know that you don’t have to leave. This life isn’t so bad when you have power and influence.” Adam stands at the entrance to Blake’s personal tent for the umpteenth evening in a row, his arms crossed.

“It is to me.” Blake gestures to the ruins surrounding them, a temporary shelter from the omnipresent dangers of the Underhive. “There has to be more than this. I need to find more than this.”

The Underhive is the worst possible place to live in a world where only an absolutely miniscule fraction of people have a decent place to live. It’s a place that is home to the worst imaginable people and creatures from through all Remnant. The exiled, insane, malcontent, mutated, and otherwise rejected by society. Though a rare few have come of their own will as well, hoping to find independence, safety, or power of some kind. Most of them just wind up dead.

There are only two places in the Underhive where you’ll find any kind of law and order. The mining operations and ore processing plants around the fringes that send thousands of tons of easily malleable compounds to the larger, more specialized manufacturing centers of the Hives, or the very center, where the Heat Sink bursts up from the ground like a hellish needle. Of course, for anyone who doesn’t work at one of these locations, getting too close would mean being immediately gunned down by countless armed guards, so to most denizens they’re nothing more than places to be avoided.

“Among the White Fang we’re leaders. Is it not better to lead in hell than to serve in paradise?” Adam gestures to Blake’s private tent, a luxury reserved for officers. “I don’t understand how you could abandon us, after all I’ve done for you.”

If you were lucky, you joined a gang on arrival and managed to live somewhere near the top, where air pollution and dangerous alien flora and fauna were minimal. Blake had been born into the Underhive at the physical age of fifteen. The body she now wore as her own had previously been inhabited by a collection of neural energy patterns whose name was unknown to her. She’d simply awoken one day, covered in blood and completely unfamiliar with her surroundings. She’d been lucky though, she was found by the White Fang before she could get into trouble or starve.

One of the more magnanimous gangs in existence, the White Fang hadn’t cared that she didn’t have a past, or that her body wasn’t what she’d like it to be. They accepted any Faunus willing to be part of their operations with open arms. Though at that piece of information, they’d had to tell her that Faunus are a human-divergent subspecies with varying animalistic features. They come from magically induced mutations in humanity, minor enough that they weren’t especially powerful and shunned as mutants, but there were still plenty of people who hated them. It was only when the leader of the patrol that found her, Adam Taurus, pointed out her black cat ears and tail that she noticed they were even a part of her body.

“I know that I owe you my life. You can call on me in your time of need and I’ll be there, no matter how far up I’ve managed to travel.” Blake sighs heavily. How many times have they had this conversation. “But if I don’t have a life of my own, then what did you even save on the day you found me?”

They’d stuck together after that, with Adam serving as a kind of mentor about the entirely new world around her. She’d confided her confusion and doubts in him, as well as her wishes, and he’s done the same in turn. They’d advanced through the ranks together, though the entire time Blake wished that she could leave the Underhive and see the world that lay above. Being able to breathe without tasting smog sounded like it would be nice. More than that though, she itched to explore, to learn more about the world and travel, expanding her knowledge.

“I know that.” Adam grinds his teeth. “But they won’t treat you equally up there, not like we do down here. Just... try to consider exactly what it is that you’re losing if you ever do manage to leave.”

“I will.” Blake knows that he means well. “Thanks.”

Adam nods stiffly as she walks past him and gets ready to “sleep.” In truth, now that her work for the day is complete, it’s time for her to continue trying to get out.

She spends two hours every evening exploring the vast depths of the Matrix. At first she had assumed that everyone could immerse themself in the barely hidden world of information that undercut almost every part of the Underhive, at least near the top, and presumably all of Remnant. It turned out that most of them needed a device called a scroll and/or specialized equipment to do so. 

For some reason, manipulating the Matrix always came easily to her, and it was something Adam advised her to keep secret. She could do more than anyone else in the White Fang, drifting through countless streams of fascination information with a voracious appetite and remembering all of it. And more than she had told anyone else, she had discovered abilities that seemed to defy the boundaries of any kind of conventional programming or hacking. 

On the surface level the Matrix is a massive series of interconnected computers all sharing vast amounts of information with each other, but there’s more to it than that. Something persistent that lurks beneath the surface, buried under countless centuries of layer after layer of arcane development protocols and long dead domains and vibrates with energy. There is some true essence which holds the Matrix together, and Blake can feel that when she manipulates the Matrix, what she’s really manipulating is that strange, incomprehensible layer that lies beneath what the average person sees.

That layer is what she’s been trying to penetrate for the last three months. If she could manage to get into the systems of the Coinage Guild, she would be able to create a fake identity and obtain access to nearly completely open travel throughout all of Remnant, provided that she wasn’t obviously unsuited to be present in her destination. The Coinage Guild were the gatekeepers of the various large passages between Hives, the Underhive, Atlas, and the Spire. They managed the migration of workers, and prevented travel from place to place without purpose, though like any organization it was possible to sway them with money or to buy false passage through the black market. The only ways to get that kind of money are far too questionable for Blake’s tastes, however.

“This isn’t working.” Blake slams her virtual head against the virtual desk at which she sits, floating and surrounded by the countless threads of information that happen to be passing by her current base of operations in the Matrix. The biomimetic feedback that was an inherent part of her ability to enter the Matrix from any location made her wince in pain. “Are you sure that you don’t know how I can manage to go deeper?”

“I’ve told you before, just because you made me, doesn’t mean I know how or why your abilities work.” A ten inch tall humanoid with four dragonfly wings and long red hair rolls her eyes at Blake impatiently. Samantha is what Blake has taken to calling a sprite, a being made from whatever stuff it is that she can manipulate within the Matrix, who keeps her company and provides invaluable help with any given task. “And, hey, plan B isn’t that bad, I’ve been snooping around and I think I’ve found a bunch of job postings you could take, and psycho-analysis of them shows that only about half the employers are liable to kill you for making a mistake.”

“And when you say job postings, you mean shadowrunning work, don’t you?” Blake sighs. It does look more tempting every day, but she’s not sure she could stand it, given how much of a reputation for wet work it has.

“Like I said, it’s perfectly possible to avoid murder and kidnapping for someone with your skils, you could totally pull off some nice bloodless corporate espionage.” Samantha huffs.

Blake has to admit that she wouldn’t be averse to a bit of harmless theft if it meant that she could finally get out of the pits. She’s been with the White Fang for five years now, constantly working surveillance and reconnaissance and she’s tired of overseeing nearly perpetual gang wars and petty disputes over limited resources through the eyes of camera lenses. Espionage would probably be way less bloody than the work she’s doing right now. But the thought of working for the same businesses that hoard all of their resources in Atlas and let the Hives and Underhives rot doesn’t sit well with her.

“Fine, show me some jobs that aren’t closely tied to any corps.” Blake figures she’s going to regret this, but she’d probably regret never getting out of here more.

###### Yang

It’s always a blessing and a curse when Ruby walks through the reinforced steel door at the top of the flight of stairs leading to their combination basement, home, and doctor’s office with the corpse of a Grimm across her back. On the one hand, a bunch of free stuff, on the other, Ruby usually ends up going at it for the next twelve hours straight to make sure that she preserves as much of the delicate medical equipment found within as possible. On the other, it means that Yang doesn’t get to see her favourite little sister for twelve hours, and that she isn’t around to help customers unless there’s an emergency. Not that there are many customers.

Their business is a twofold partnership. Yang is the people person and the brute force, negotiating prices and making sure nobody tries anything stupid, while Ruby is the one with all the technical skills, both to install any kind cyberware or bioware, and for general doctoral practise. She’s what’s referred to as a ripperdoc in the business, a name that comes from the days when shady doctors like her didn’t bother with anesthesia before cutting off the limbs their patients wanted replaced with cybernetics. 

“Sun had a great haul of stuff today too.” Ruby tosses the rucksack full less immediately important materials to Yang with a smile. “I’m going to go crazy on that bag once I’ve got this good boy taken care of.”

Yang catches the bag with ease, then stares at her sister with the same empty gaze that she uses whenever Ruby says something crazy. “Did you just call a Grimm corpse a good boy?”

“Yes, because he is.” Ruby pouts and pats the head of the disabled Grimm affectionately.

“If you try to reprogram and repair it I will re-enable the parental controls mam installed on Crescent Rose.” Yang crosses her arms seriously. “You’ll only be able to use her on missions and when you’re in danger.”

“You wouldn’t.” Ruby holds the black metal head and its maw of sharp teeth lovingly against her chest, then sighs. “Fine, I won’t.”

“Good. I’ll have dinner ready for you when you’re done.” Yang kisses Ruby’s forehead before she leaves, then sends her off with a firm pat on the back that nearly topples her.

“Is it gonna be pasta again?” Ruby frowned.

“Nope. Hamburgers, made out of actual beef.” Yang grinned. She’d managed to get a good price on some low quality lab-grown beef at the supermarket. It was practically dirt, compared to the nice stuff, but it was a very nice change from fish and vegetables, the most easily accessible foods in Hives, due to their primary means of food production being aquaponics.

“I’ll be extra quick!” Ruby rushes off to her workshop with an excited spring in her step.

###### 

By the time Ruby is done Yang has already finished their meal, and has it carefully wrapped up in the oven to keep the burgers hot. She can’t help but notice just how at ease Ruby looks when she’s covered in grime and evaporated fluids. Far more so than when she’s around prospective customers. 

Ruby rubs her hands together as she stares closely at the meal. “Thank you for the food!” She digs in, no doubt starved after working for so long without sleep. 

Yang yawns as she cuts open her own burger and starts eating as well. She hasn’t left the office in a few days, so who even knows whether it’s the day, evening, or night shift right now. Should probably sleep, but finding enough clients to keep the clinic going is more than a full time job, thanks to the small margins Ruby insists on keeping. 

The low cost alone for both ordinary medical treatment and the installation of Ruby’s high quality, highly customizable cyberware should have been enough to draw plenty of business, but they had the misfortune of living in Patch, a Hive that connected directly to Underhives. Practically all that happened down here was the manufacturing of construction materials. Anybody who made enough money to spend it on things other than living day to day made enough to go to a legitimate doctor, more often than not.

“Do you ever think about going back to shadowrunning?” Yang spat out the sip of water she had been trying to drink as Ruby dropped a bombshell.

“We’re not doing that. Just the two of us aren’t enough for a functional team. You’re great with software, but you don’t have any hacking skills, and neither of us has any magical potential.” Yang wipes her mouth off on her sleeve, though she can’t deny that they are in a difficult financial situation. That’s something Ruby doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, know yet.

Those with varying kinds of magical capabilities are known as the Awakened. Awakened individuals are an absolute necessity for any group hoping to commit illicit acts, as without someone magically competent magical traps are undetectable and unavoidable.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s just so boring waiting for people to come to me all the time. And I was sort of thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to save up enough money to buy passage to Vale and make house calls. And we could visit Nora and the others sometimes. I bet Jaune would appreciate some good combat cybernetics, but he never has the time or money to come visit.” Ruby sighs. They’d made the money that it took to start their clinic and their personal modifications and weapons by borrowing some equipment from their parents and running alongside Jaune and his team.

“I’d like to be able to do those things too, but we don’t know anyone trustworthy around here, who’s alone, and has the skills we need.” Yang sighs in turn. Running this clinic wasn’t the most sustainable of life choices, even if it was something that helped people.

“We could try to find a job by just having mam be our handler.” 

“Yeah, but then mom would kill us, if our teammates didn’t first.” Yang rolls her eyes. Their mom strongly disapproved of their initial career path, but she was very happy to see Ruby be a doctor, their mam, however, was the exact opposite.

“It’s probably worth trying. You know she knows how to vet people.” Ruby isn’t wrong. Their mam is a scarily good magician specializing in mental magic. Mind reading, mind control, things that could easily screw over anyone trying to approach others with malicious intent. Mind reading can not, however, detect whether someone was going to be an idiot and screw up a run.

“I’m going to think about it later, okay? I’m way too tied to consider it right now.” Yang gets up and throws her plate in the sink. “You probably need to sleep too. When was the last time you slept?” 

“I guess it was two or three days ago.” Ruby slumps. Now that she doesn’t have anything to do she’s probably just realizing that she’s dead tired too.

“Alright, you're coming with me.” Yang scoops Ruby up in her arms and carries her to their shared bedroom. Space is at a premium in the densely populated Hives. The only reason they have more than one room in their clinic in the first place is because they illegally excavated the other three. An operating room, bedroom, and storage room/workshop. 

“Mmmm, goodnight.” Ruby cuddles close to Yang and drifts off to sleep the instant she’s in their bed.

“Goodnight.” Yang kisses Ruby on the forehead one last time before turning off the light and letting sleep overtake her as well.


	2. Even if I Dream, Even if I Cry, Even if I Get Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have two tests this week, so no Birds update. Also, there's another rosebird oneshot in the works. No clue how long that one's going to take me
> 
> thanks to Alucard45, my beta reader

###### Yang

Yang dreads the moment that Ruby finishes waking up. As they eat their breakfast of soy milk and cereal, she distantly hopes that maybe Ruby will have forgotten about whatever it is that prompted her to think about going back to shadowrunning. It’s silly, really. If they did get back into the business Ruby would probably be the safest among a team, given that she would be the one in the getaway van, manipulating Crescent Rose from afar.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to have some roommates?” Ruby prods her the moment they’re done eating, eyes wide and no doubt fully prepared to pout at full force.

“You know that isn’t why I don’t want to shadowrun.” Yang sighs. The two of them haven’t had much in the way of a social circle since Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha left Patch. Mostly just their parents and Tai, or Neptune and Sun, who they occasionally meet up with to gamble for favors.

“Yeah, but, I mean...” Ruby stares distantly into the wall of their clinic. “I can’t keep doing this. I love this work so much, but there’s not any work. The last time I installed cyberware in someone was when Ren had me make his genitals modular.” She smiles distantly at the memory, but there’s that faintly watery look in her eyes, the kind that means she’s fighting back tears. Gender-affirming work is her favourite kind, and she practically gives it away to people, though Nora had insisted on paying full price.

“I’m sorry.” Yang gets up and pulls Ruby out of her chair into a hug. “It’s my fault for not being able to find us customers, even with mom’s help. If you’re sure about this, I’ll do it with you.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” Ruby hugs Yang back tightly. “We’ll just do it enough to buy us a permanent passage between here and Vale, and some advertising, maybe.”

“That’s worth trying, I guess.” Yang hopes it's actually possible. Building up enough assets to work independently is a dream life, but it’s rare for a reason. Part of being a ripperdoc is balancing having a reputation with enough secrecy that you don’t have to deal with hostility from business rivals or just people who think they can make money off of selling valuable medical equipment.

“So you’ll ask mam to find some people?” Ruby beams excitedly as she leaves the hug.

“I will.” Yang ruffles Ruby’s hair.

“Thanks.” Ruby hugs Yang again, even as Yang pulls out her scroll and asks their mam to pay them a visit for business reasons.

###### 

“Mam!” Ruby doesn’t waste a moment, pouncing atop their mam with a crushing hug the moment she arrives.

“Ruby.” Raven smiles as she hugs her daughter back. She’s here for business though, and the hug doesn’t last as long as Ruby’s hugs usually do. “What’s going on?”

“We want you to put out feelers and find people to make a shadowrunning team with us.” Yang sighes. She doesn’t like admitting it, but it’s far better than going broke.

“About time you two got your hands dirty again.” Raven smirks approvingly. “A decker and someone Awakened?”

“That’s what it would take to make us a viable team.” Yang shrugs. Teams can be larger, but they don’t have any grandiose plans, so it shouldn’t be necessary.

“Any particular requests?” A glint of humor appears in Raven’s eye as she shoots a pointed look at Ruby.

“Well, I mean, uhhh...” Ruby blushes violently, her entire face literally turning pink in response to her emotions. Raven knows exactly what she’s thinking, and not because of any magic. “Girls pretty?”

“My sweet daughter, you’re as bad as Summer.” Raven chuckles. “I’ll see what I can do. And you Yang?”

“You know me, I’ll hit on anyone with a heartbeat and half a personality.” Yang grins broadly.

Raven rolls her eyes. “And you’re as bad as your uncle Tai.”

“Better than turning out like uncle Qrow. Poor bastard hasn’t gotten any in years.” Not that she’s any better, but for her it’s a choice, not because she feels sorry for herself.

“I’ll get on top of it. Now, how is my daughters’ business going?” Raven relaxes, done talking business and ready to spend some quality time with her daughters.

###### Weiss

Weiss wakes up with a pounding headache, a dry throat, and an immensely proud smile. She takes her time to open her eyes, grateful to Klein, who is no doubt the one responsible for the fact that her room is very dimly lit. Given that no medical equipment surrounds her, any physical damage caused by the exertion required to bind such a powerful spirit is minor. The headache is likely another side effect of dehydration, as she has most likely slept long enough to completely recover from the effects of drain, the technical term for the potential consequences of using magic.

“About time you awoke.” Salem stands by her bedside in a materialized form, idly picking at her sharp fingernails. “It is quite inconsiderate of you to keep a guest such as myself waiting in a room with no decent company to speak of, not to mention the impropriety of allowing one such as myself into your bedroom as you sleep. Sleep is such a... vulnerable state for you mortals.” She smirks as her red eyes trail slowly over Weiss’ partially blanket covered body, and Weiss is suddenly very aware of the fact that she’s wearing only her light blue nightgown.

“Tell me, are you always so uncouth?” Weiss clicks her tongue disapprovingly as she subtly draws more blankets over herself. It suddenly occurs to her that Salem will be perfectly capable of watching her shower should she desire.

“Only around mortals who sufficiently intrigue me.” Salem moves her hands in a familiar arcane gesture and Weiss feels a psychokinetic force wrap around her upper body and gently lift her into a sitting position. “Now look lively, you have a visitor.”

Of course Salem knows how to cast Magic Fingers. Weiss finds herself beginning to seriously worry for her own safety, only to be distracted by a knock at the door. 

“Weiss, are you awake?” 

“Yes Klein, do come in.” Weiss shakes her head as Salem quickly dematerializes and returns to the Astral Plane, amazed as usual by his impeccable timing.

“I took the liberty of preparing your favourite tea.” Klein walks in pushing a tea cart, from which he quickly hands Weiss a still steaming cup of tea with cream and two sugars. “Were you successful in your endeavor?”

“Very successful indeed.” Weiss looks to the spot at which Salem previously stood, and begins assensing. Her awareness splits between the physical and Astral planes for a brief moment in which she attempts to determine Salem’s exact capabilities. “Though I am curious, how much time has passed?”

The Astral Plane is a plane that resides somewhere between the physical world and the various metaplanes made of nearly pure magical essence. It is a link through which mana flows into the physical plane, and the primary place in which summoned spirits dwell until they have a need to manifest themselves. Inanimate objects can be seen from the astral plane, but they are perpetually out of focus, whereas anything living or containing magical energy stands out in sharp definition. Nearly any Awakened magician, and some adepts are able to use the Astral Plane to glean some idea of a person’s emotional state and whether they are Awakened as well, while those who are especially skilled can precisely identify others’ raw magical power, physical health, and installed cyberware.

Salem’s magical power is more than double Weiss’ own. Quite a bit, even for a spirit. Summoning a spirit with twice the power of the shaman is quite dangerous, but not unheard of. Weiss muses that her access to large quantities of orichalcum, powerful bloodline, and lifetime of training have quite handily been turned to uses against her father’s wishes.

“You took nearly sixteen hours to complete the summoning, and following the binding were unconscious for twice as long. Congratulations dear.” Klein beams as he prepares a cup of tea for himself. “Ordinarily I would suggest that this demands a celebration, but I wouldn’t want to keep you here any longer than necessary.”

“Thank you Klein. I will miss you.” Weiss basks in her tea for what may well be the final time. Tea is quite the luxury, as is any fruit or vegetable that requires more than a minimal amount of land to produce per unit. “And I will miss tea nearly as much.”

“About that.” Klein’s moustache twitches as he removes another item from the cart. A small glass jar, filled with dried tea leaves. “I took the liberty of preparing this as well, assuming that it’s not too soon.”

“No, once I eat a proper meal I believe that I will have fully recovered, so there really is no reason to wait, and very little to prepare. You’re the only one here that I must say goodbye to.” Weiss smiles sadly. She will miss Klein. Ah well, better to live free and alone than in a prison with a modicum of pleasant company.

“Goodbye then. I hope to never hear of your exploits, as if I do it will no doubt mean that you have been caught.” Klein stands, taking his tea with him as he begins to leave the room. A single tear glistens in the corner of his eye.

“My sentiments exactly.” Weiss offers one final farewell as he leaves, then relaxes back into her bed. Today will be very busy, so she may as well take her time in getting out of bed.

“Will you not miss me as well, sister?” Weiss’ eyes shoot open to see the ghostly image of her sister’s astral projection before her.

“We’re both powerful magicians, we can communicate with each other through astral projection at any time.” Weiss rolls her eyes. “I suppose that you’ve come because you heard word that I lost consciousness in the midst of a binding.”

“Indeed. And I must say that the result of that binding is quite impressive.” Winter taps her chin contemplatively, no doubt looking at Salem as she says so.

“Excuse you?” Salem manifests, no doubt for Weiss’ benefit. “I am not some slab of meat to be appraised. Not by you, at least.” She winks at Weiss as she says it, causing Weiss to blush furiously.

“How unexpected.” Winter’s reaction to a spirit with a sapience comparable to her own is as cool as the rest of her reactions. “Quite an impressive summoning indeed. You simply must ensure to allow me through the mana barriers of whatever base of operations you establish that I might study it at times.”

“You can only study her if she agrees and if you agree to regularly supply me with orichalcum in return.” Weiss chides her sister.

“How considerate of you, I appear to have agreed to bind myself to a very interesting individual indeed.” Salem grins, baring her teeth. “But no, I refuse.”

Winter tsks. “Anyway, I came to offer you my best wishes, though I feel that must warn you against this ridiculous plan of yours one last time as well.”

“I know what I’m doing. I’ve already had Klein get into contact with a trustworthy information dealer. I can bring hundreds of thousands of Lien worth of nanobots with me, and I will have plenty of funding to sustain myself under a cover identity until finding a trustworthy team.” Weiss doubts that it will be by any means easy adjusting to the life of a peasant, but she will do what she must. “Furthermore, I am extraordinarily overqualified to work in such a sector as where I plan to go and should be in no serious danger.”

“That kind of overconfidence is precisely what gets Shadowrunners killed.” Winter scowls. “You know that if I am hired to hunt you down I will not show mercy.”

“But you also won’t do the dishonorable thing and use the fact that you can find me through the Astral Plane to track me down.” Weiss cooly meets her sister’s gaze. “I doubt that it will come to that anytime soon. Though who knows where my aspirations may lead me.” She shrugs, satisfied to let the cards fall where they may.

“Very well. In that case I will simply have to wish you good luck.”

“But my dear sister, you don’t believe in luck.” 

“No, no I do not.” Winter smiles. “Goodbye, for the time being.”

###### Blake

It’s surprisingly easy to get in contact with professional Shadowrunners and search for work when you know what to look for. There are many forums, some of them explicitly for those purposes, though of course there are many pitfalls as well. Common is a would-be shadowrunner who failed to make the proper safety arrangements when meeting with their supposed clients and paid the price by being looted of their valuables, and their lives. It would no doubt be possible for the Guilds and the Corporations to remove such easily accessible networking methods, but then how would they employ runners themselves?

Blake doesn’t take long to find a subforum local to Patch, a Hive whose entrance is located very near to her current location, and from there she searches for a handler or any kind of prospective employer who may be willing to pay her way from the Underhive to Patch. One of the most recent offers she sees is a post looking for a skilled hacker and an awakened individual of any kind to join a team intended for the long term. One of the members of the team is even a highly skilled doctor. The poster has a significant reputation and a long history of regular activity on the forum, so Blake starts a conversation with them.

**dataProwler: I’m interested in this job. I’m a hacker, but I’m currently living in the Underhives, would need a loan to get into Patch  
BadOmen: you’d have to be a pretty damn good hacker to be worth that kind of money  
dataProwler: is that a challenge?  
BadOmen: if you can figure out where I live I’ll cover the cost, but be warned, you will owe me, and I will be keeping your income until your debt is repaid  
dataProwler: I’ll let you know in twenty minutes**

The Matrix has many different kinds of sublevels and organizational divisions. The broadest of them are grids. Each grid is about the size of a single district within a Hive, of which a smaller Hive has at least five. Ordinarily, attempting to hack something from many grids away is nearly impossible, regardless of skill, distance causes many complications. Blake just grins. She can bypass that, and make herself present on every grid simultaneously. Doing so makes her just as vulnerable to others as it makes her able to reach them, but that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.

Finding the central server for the forum she communicated on is simple, sliding through it’s security protocols without being detected is slightly less so. But once she’s in, she’s in, and from there she can identify the Matrix persona of the user behind the username BadOmen. A matrix persona is a digital representation of a device or user that is connected to the Matrix, people tend to make them vaguely humanoid and extravagant in appearance, but this one is a plain black raven. 

Persona’s are almost always less secure than servers, and this one is no different. Blake would almost think it was suspicious how easily this was going, but for any halfway decent hacker even decent quality devices aren’t very likely to notice her forcibly gaining access to them, nor to prevent it from happening in the first place. She doesn’t even bother getting Samantha to help her out. Once she has access to the persona, she gets lucky. There are electronic locks slaved to the owner’s scroll, and even an entire home alarm system. 

No, that’s suspicious. What kind of criminal has a home alarm system? Blake carefully investigates the system, and finds that instead of the police it’s rigged to notify the owner and a small number of other select individuals, and that it’s homemade, rather than the kind that someone would buy from a normal store. It seems legitimate. From there she determines the physical location by stealing location data from the scrolls of a few passers by, and is done.

Blake checks the time. It took her ten minutes. Not bad. She’d expected to fail to get into the scroll of a successful criminal the first few times, but she hadn’t.

**dataProwler: that was easier than expected, here’s your address  
BadOmen: you’ll do then. How soon can you come?  
dataProwler: it’ll take me two hours to walk to the gate from my current location  
BadOmen: I’ll be there when you arrive. Don’t waste my time.  
dataProwler: will do**

Blake blinks as she leaves the Matrix. She’s done it. She’s arranged to make her way out of the Underhives, and she could start walking away right now if she wanted to. Shit. She stands up, and looks around her tent one last time. She doesn’t really have anything to bring with her, she can ply her trade with nothing more than herself. The benefits afforded to her as a gang member are mostly just decent food, safety, and respect. 

It feels so strange to go outside, look around the filthy, dangerous wasteland that perpetually glows from the light of the Heat Sink doing its work, and think that she’s probably never coming back here. Well, maybe she could, but as much as she’ll probably miss Adam and Ilia, she doesn’t really want to come back. She probably wouldn’t be able to locate the White Fang anyway, or be welcome to simply talk with some of their leaders.

“Blake, are you alright? You look weird.” Ilia looks like she’s just finished working out, her skin still tinted slightly red with exertion. She’s a scout for the Fang, her color-changing skin lets her blend in with the drab environment very effectively, and she’s also Blake’s other best friend.

“I’m leaving.” Blake shrugs. It still hasn’t really registered yet. She feels strangely numb.

“For a mission?” Ilia’s expression already says that she knows better. Blake isn’t much of a fighter, she’s okay with a pistol and that’s it. There’s no mission that she would be more of an asset for in person than from a safe distance.

“No. I’m leaving the White Fang, and the Underhives.” And putting herself deep into debt with an established criminal, but hopefully the established part means that she’s not going to get cheated. “I’m going to be a shadowrunner.”

“Oh.” They stare at each other for a long moment, barely able to maintain eye contact. Ilia takes a deep breath. “Alright, but I’m walking you to wherever it is you’re going. And Adam will probably insist on coming too.”

“Yeah, he will, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Blake smiles faintly. “Let’s go find him and share the good news.”

“Yeah, let’s.” Ilia smiles back, and Blake can tell that she’s holding back tears.

###### Raven

Raven is no fool. There are only two ways that someone as far away from her home as the Underhive could possibly hack into her scroll. Ordinarily the crossing of Matrix grids causes severe amounts of interference, and only technomancers have methods of overcoming that interference. Meaning that her potential recruit for Ruby’s team is either a technomancer, or is lying about who they are. 

It’s a dangerous situation, but one with a significant potential for reward. Technomancers are incredibly rare and poorly understood, but they are often incredibly useful indeed. And Raven will have nothing but the best possible people doing work with her daughters.

So Raven goes to the Underhive, situates herself just close enough to the watchful security of the Coinage Guild that anyone attempting to attack her from the physical plane would be committing suicide, and watches.

Hardly anyone passes by. The Underhive is a place that almost nobody visits by choice, save for shady business deals and dangerous scavenging operations. About fifteen minutes after the time the person she had come to meet claimed they would be present, she sees three incredibly scrabbly figures walking through the wastes and to the station. She begins assensing, and observes them through the Astral Plane.

Raven isn’t quite skilled enough to reliably identify whether one of the figures is a technomancer. But none of them are likely to pose much of a threat to her, and the only other people present are Coinage Guild security personnel. So she hides from view behind a conveniently placed rock formation, and casts two spells to make herself invisible and muffle any sound she may produce. Openly using magic near security guards only serves to make them anxious at best, and make them think that they’re about to be attacked at worst.

Raven walks out to meet the three people unseen, realizing that all three are Faunus as she draws close. Once she's right in front of them, she draws her sword and points it at the technomancer before releasing the spells. “Are you the hacker I’ve come here to meet?” 

All three of them jump at the sight of an armed woman appearing from nowhere directly in front of the. The one in the middle steps forward. 

“That’s right.”

“It’s time for you friends to leave us be.” Raven inclines her head to the others.

“Right.” Black cat ears droop as their owner turns to her friends. “Even if I dream, even if I cry, even if I get hurt, I won’t regret it, I swear. So thanks for being around, both of you.” They all share goodbyes that Raven doesn’t particularly care to pay attention to, save to make sure none of them decide to try attacking her. At least there aren’t any tears.

Once the friends are out of sight, Raven gets ready to start her interrogation, sheathing her sword in favor of utilizing her ruby wedding ring to enhance the power of her magic. It’s a Focus that she spent a great deal of time investing mana into after Summer proposed to her. “My name is Raven. I’m going to read your mind to make sure of your intentions. If you want my help you won’t resist.”

“Okay. My name is Blake.” Blake swallows nervously, but nods.

“This won’t hurt, probably.” Raven draws on her wedding ring to enhance her magic, mutters a brief trigger word, and makes familiar precise hand gestures, completing the spell with only a small amount of drain that manifests as a sudden rush of fatigue. The world warps around her will, and arcane power is directed by her practiced hand. 

In an instant the entirety of Blake’s being is revealed to her. Raven has access to everything, but she chooses to restrain herself to determining this girl's honesty. Reviewing Blake’s memories of the past day is enough to satisfy her, but as she does so she realizes something odd. Blake has no memories from before a specific point. A full force Mind Probe is an incredibly powerful thing, and is capable of revealing even memories permanently lost to the conscious mind to its caster. In other words, this is not a case of amnesia, but rather that Blake somehow came into existence at the beginning of her memories. Raven has never seen anything like it before. Still, she releases the spell.

“Are you aware that your memories begin at the age of fifteen for a reason other than amnesia?” Raven stares at the mysterious recruit before her.

“I’ve always felt like that was the case.” Blake stares at Raven with wide eyes. “How do you know that?”

“Magic is an incredibly powerful thing, I recommend that in the future you do not allow mages to cast spells on you without resisting them.” Raven steps forward and hands Blake and identification card. “Here. As far as the Coinage Guild will be concerned for the next hour and a half, you are my daughter.”

“So I passed?” Blake takes the id almost reverently, then tilts her head as she sees the picture on it. “This looks nothing like me.”

“Nothing a little bit of magic can’t fix.” Raven puts her hand on Blake’s forehead and casts another spell, this one much less taxing than a mind probe. “There, I’ve disguised you.”

“I don’t look any different.” Blake looks down at her body curiously.

“As the subject of the spell you can see through it, as can I being the caster. But it’s working.” Raven grabs Blake by the hand and begins to drag her to the station. “Now hurry up, I’m a busy woman.

“Right!” Blake grins, and actually tries to run like an idiot before being pulled back by Raven.

“Fifth rule of shadowrunning, don’t draw any unnecessary attention. We will walk the entire way to our destination.” Raven is not going to deal with teaching this kid common sense, that can be Ruby and Yang’s job. Ruby would probably be delighted to teach her anyway, given that Blake is indeed a cute girl. “And no meaningful conversation either, not until I start it. You never know who might be listening.”

###### 

Once they reach Patch, Raven relaxes a great deal. There’s always a very minor chance that someone who matters will see through an illusion spell, and relying on them never fails to nearly give her a heart attack. She takes Blake to her car, then removes a low quality cyberdeck and scroll from her trunk and hands them to the technomancer. “Here.”

Blake stares at the equipment like she’s been given a dead rat. “What’s this?”

“It’s a cyberdeck. Normal hackers use them to do their business. They’re called deckers. You should use it to pretend to be one of them.” Raven rolls her eyes and gestures for Blake to get into the passenger seat of their car.

“What for?” Blake doesn’t know how to operate the handle, so Raven gets it for her. It occurs to her that Blake has probably never seen a car before.

“Because technomancers are still pretty new, poorly understood, often feared, and worth quite a bit of money to people who want to figure out how they work.” Raven grins as she activates the engine and the car jumps to life under her hands. She loves driving.

“Oh.” Blake stares out the window as soon as they leave the station parking, completely absorbed by looking at the passing city. Normally a district right next to a station is fairly wealthy, given that only corporate drones in positions of relative privilege can afford to travel them. The Underhives, of course, are different. The area surrounding that passageway is especially heavy with criminal activity, though of course none of it all that serious. There’s nothing of value to fight over there, just a bunch of people trying to live with too few resources. 

“Keep in mind that if you betray me I’ll auction you off to the highest bidder and I’m sure we’ll get along fine. Two of the people you’ll be working with, however, are my daughters. If either of them die, I will auction you off to the lowest bidder.” Raven makes her customary threat to anyone who interacts with a member of her family as she pulls into an apartment building parking lot a short distance from the home of two of said family members.

“I see.” That’s enough to scare Blake. Good, she should be scared, though probably not of Raven so much as the job she’s getting herself into.

###### Ruby

Ruby can’t stop staring at the intercom connected to her front door. Just minutes ago, Raven had sent her a message saying that the first teammate for her and Yang to run with was on her way. Now she’s far too focused on that to do any of the things she had to work on.

The intercom buzzes, and Ruby answers it immediately. “Hello?” As expected, it’s her mam’s face that she sees on the camera feed. “Ahhhh, you’re here!” She buzzes them in right away.

“Ruby, how many times have I told you to make me give you our password? Any half-decent magician can magically disguise themself as me.” Raven shakes her head as she walks down the stairs, a cute girl wearing what are nearly rags and carrying a cyberdeck trailing close behind her. “This is Blake, she’s a decker.”

“Hi!” Ruby rushes up to Blake and starts looking her over. The first thing that strikes Ruby about her is the adorable cat ears and tail that she has. Ruby has to resist a very strong impulse to pull the tail as it flicks passively under her gaze. Blake is also gaunt to the point of obvious malnutrition, though not starvation, definitely on the dirty side when it comes to personal hygiene, and to Ruby’s surprise, completely flesh and blood. “I’m Ruby! I'm the team doctor and engineer. If you want some cyberware I can totally hit you up.”

“I sort of already owe your mom a bunch of money, so I’ll pass for now, thanks.” Blake stands awkwardly still as Ruby flits about her, quickly checking for any health issues beyond the obvious.

“We need to make sure to get you a lot of food, what’s your diet looked like for the last year?” Ruby gives Blake some space to breathe once she’s finished, though she still wants to hang around this new person.

“Scavenged fungi and rodents, pretty much.” Blake shrugs. “And that’s been more like the last five years.”

“She’s from the Underhives.” Raven puts a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “So try not to overwhelm her.”

“Okay.” Ruby turns to Blake with a smile. “Congratulations on making it to Patch, by the way.”

“Thanks.” Blake is looking around the simple combination living room, waiting room, and kitchenette with a wondrous look on her face. “I’ve never lived somewhere with running water before. You have running water, right?”

“Yep, and it gets pretty hot during a shower, if that’s your thing.” Yang saunters her way into the room in time to answer the last question, wearing a loose yellow t-shirt and shorts. She takes a moment to appraise Blake, then greets her in a deliberately husky voice. “Hey, I’m Yang. I’m the muscle.”

“H-hi.” Blake blatantly stares at Yang’s body, and Ruby internally pouts. It’s understandable though, there’s probably not enough food in the Underhive for most people to be capable of building much in the way of muscle or certain other kinds of body mass that Yang has in abundance.

“Well, good luck with all that shit, I’ll let you three know when I’ve found a fourth team member.” Raven gives Ruby a quick pat on the head before taking her leave, barely noticed.

Ruby and Yang spend the next thirty minutes showing Blake around their home. Her expressions of delight grow with every new luxury she discovers, and the sisters take turns trying to one-up each other with their presentation, going out of their way to awe her. 

“This is so much more than I’ve ever had in my life.” Blake tumbles down onto the couch from a standing position, her voice numb. “It’s hard to believe that this is even happening. You guys have no idea how much it means to me that you’re just... putting yourselves out there like this.”

“We’re pretty privileged, that’s all.” Ruby carefully sits next to Blake. “Since it’s a family business for us we have a lot of people that we can trust. Most people need to be seriously suspicious of everything to stay alive. We have the luxury of being pretty nice people.”

“And also the luxury of being total badasses.” Yang grins, and flexes her biceps.

“That explains a lot. Thank you though, really.” Blake laughs and lets herself sink into the soft couch. “Even the Matrix around here is amazing. There’s so much technology that the entire thing feels positively vibrant.” 

“You can feel the Matrix?” Ruby raises an eyebrow. 

“Uh, I mean... just in the sense that there are so many different personas here. Since most people in the Underhives didn’t have a scroll.” Blake immediately doubles back on her statement.

“You’re not a very good liar, but it’s fine. We won’t press you if you don’t want to tell us, but we also don’t judge people for much of anything.” Yang rests a hand on Blake’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Thanks. I really can’t say that enough.” Blake shyly recedes from the touch. “But I think I’m going to try to keep to myself a bit while I get used to things.”

“Valid.” Ruby nods. Moving from living with her parents into this place with Yang had been hard enough. Completely changing lifestyles must be a huge shock. “And since you just turned down my offer of cyberware earlier because of money, if you want any sort of modifications because of gender reasons I’ll totally do that for free.”

“Gender reasons?” Blake looks down at her body contemplatively. “Huh. I’ll... think about that.”

“Cool.” Ruby nods and stands up. She gives Blake a small smile before she goes to her workshop to start drawing up a meal schedule for Blake. It’s exciting to have a new roommate, and she likes Blake. Well, she’d probably be guaranteed to like any girl around her age, but still.

“Wait a second, we should probably get a second bed.” Yang comes to the realization right before Ruby is out of earshot.

“Nah, don’t worry about me. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor. It actually looks way more comfortable and cleaner than what I’m used to.” Blake shrugs.

“No way, you’re probably going to be with us for a while, you can’t just sleep on the floor. If you won’t let us buy a second bed we’ll just share.” Ruby realizes that she should probably give Blake a proper checkup and make sure she doesn’t have any spinal problems when they have the time.

“Sharing’s fine, I guess. As long as I’m not crowding you two out.” Blake looks between Ruby and Yang, trying to make sure that they aren’t being self-sacrificing.

“There should be plenty of space.” Yang reassures Blake. “We got a really big bed because Ruby tends to move around a lot, and then we learned that when she has someone to cuddle she usually just clings to them instead, it’s _very_ cute.”

“Alright.” Blake looks at Ruby with a curious glint in her eyes. “I guess that’s fine then.”

“Great.” Ruby indecisively bounces on the balls of her feet for a moment before leaving, very excited to have another person to cuddle, especially someone with adorable cat ears and a tail.


	3. Fine Red Paste

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to Alucard45, for beta reading this chapter
> 
> why is this the fluffiest and silliest thing I'm currently writing when it's literally a cyberpunk au?

###### Weiss

The plan is simple. Disguise herself as a simple security personnel using magic and a set of false credentials Klein had made for her, then pretend to go home after the completion of a shift spent patrolling the grounds of the mansion and watching camera feeds. From there, walk to the Tube, and travel as far from Atlas as possible. Specifically, to Patch, the Hive in which she has already made arrangements with a black market saleswoman and information broker to sell her valuable cargo and find a secure base of operations.

But of course, nothing is as simple as it should be. Salem effectively hides within Weiss by partially possessing her in order to pass through the many mana barriers guarding the manor. As they approach the final exterior security checkpoint before leaving the manor and walking freely down the streets, Salem speaks in her mind.

_That guard is Awakened._

Weiss grinds her teeth. Of course there would be an awakened guard present to assense anyone who wishes to pass through. They will likely recognise her and sound an alarm when they do so. Or worse, recognise that her fake identity is not one registered as being awakened and attempt to kill her on sight as an intruder. She could potentially attempt to kill the guard with a single spell, but to guarantee such a result would run a risk of draining her enough that she is unprepared for the remainder of her journey.

 _I can control his thoughts, if you do not know the spell yourself._ Salem makes an offer that Weiss immediately dislikes.

A direct fight is something that Weiss knows it is often best to avoid, but it is something that she ordinarily refuses to run from. She likes to think that she has a sense of honor and decency, unlike the rest of her family, who are perfectly satisfied to use whatever tactics benefit them the most. That’s the reason why she has chosen not to learn such spells as can manipulate another person’s mind. _Fine._ She cedes control of her body to Salem.

Watching her own body perform magic is a strange thing. The guard notices the spell as Salem approaches him, but is forcibly calmed as the spell quickly takes effect. They’ve likely just set off numerous alarms with that, but the defences are designed to keep intruders out, not to keep residents in. There should still be enough time to escape without being accosted. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time to scrub away Salem’s astral signature, but no one will be able to recognise it, and in order for someone to do so in the future it would have to be a specific individual who took the time to study it in person.

Back in control of her body, Weiss nods to the guard and quickly steps into the cylindrical elevator that rises up from the floor of the small guardhouse. It is disconnected from any control outside of the manual controls operated by the guard responsible for identifying comers and goers, and will take her to a large parking complex in the Spire, the underside of Atlas.

Beneath the hollow cone that Atlas is built up lies the Spire. A massive expanse filled with buildings and infrastructure that grow into any available space from both the ceiling of the structure and the floor, like stalactites and stalagmites. The parts of the Spire nearest to Atlas contain grandiose and exotic entertainment for Atlesians. The people who work in such locations often live on site, so as to avoid creating an unsightly residential district. Places that don’t hold businesses that the richest of all visit primarily exist to serve them in their homes. Security contractors, caterers, and the residences of such people are located there. The residents of the rest of the Spire are incredibly skilled and valuable employees. Scientists, diplomats, the highest levels of management. The only industry that occurs is the manufacturing of the most secret prototypes and the most advanced possible research, meaning that the air is completely clean.

She makes it to the parking garage attached to the elevator without difficulty, and does her best to disappear into the residential district, taking a slightly skewed path to the nearest Tube station. Salem keeps watch through the Astral Plane and ensures that no one is following them, though all either of them can do is hope that technological methods aren’t being used to track her.

The Tubes are not meant to transport living things. They have minimally powerful inertial dampening fields, unlike the various official methods of human passage between Hives. They serve as the means of transporting vast amounts of industrial goods throughout Remnant, and there are very few security measures associated with them, save devices meant to detect explosives powerful enough to damage them.

However, with powerful enough magic and a rebreather that can’t be jostled around and broken while in use, anything is possible. Probably. Weiss is reasonably sure that she can survive the couple dozen gs of acceleration that propel the massive metal chambers through the massive snaking system of electromagnetic rails by first enhancing her own body with spells and then channeling Salem, further enhancing her own raw physical prowess. Healing spells will most likely be necessary as well, after every instance of acceleration and deceleration.

Weiss makes it to the massive Tube station unmolested, and buys a metal box large enough to hold her, as well as paying for its transportation to Patch. Salem then manifests, seals her into the box, and deposits the box to be transported. Spirits delivering urgent packages is not unheard of, though Salem is certainly a very unusual spirit. From that point, all that remains is to wait.

 _This escape plan of yours is perhaps one of the most foolish I have seen in millenia. I quite look forward to seeing whether or not your body has been turned into a smooth red paste by the time you reach your destination._ Salem’s thoughts are amused as she returns to resting in the back of Weiss’ consciousness.

 _As long as you do your job I will not be a smooth red paste._ Weiss rolls her eyes as she assumes a relatively comfortable position in the somewhat small box. 

_I hope you realize how fortunate you are to have the assistance of one so powerful as myself. Else you would be mere minutes away from certain death caused by foolishness right now._

_You have my neverending gratitude._ Weiss hopes that the dryness of her thoughts is properly conveyed through telepathy.

_As expected. Now, allow me to armor you, you will need to cast the healing spells yourself as I sustain the armor, given that you will retain physical control of your body through the channeling._

_Agreed._ Weiss settles herself in, and waits for the package she resides in to be taken away.

###### Blake

“You’re in surprisingly decent health for where you were living up until now.” Ruby nods as Blake puts her clothes back on. “Just gotta get you well fed, and then throw in the standard array of augmentations.”

“Standard array?” Blake clasps her hand to her forearm nervously. As professional about the whole thing as Ruby had been, being examined was an oddly uncomfortable experience that now left her feeling suddenly very uncertain about her relationship with her own body.

“Subdermal armor and bone reinforcement. No negative side effects, and it makes you way less likely to get killed by a stray bullet, or to break a bone and be too hurt to run away.” Ruby coughs awkwardly, looking away from Blake. “And I uh... I could just double my monthly order of hormones if you want, and you can start taking some of what I’ve already got.”

“Would that be okay?” Blake isn’t entirely sure about what she means by the question, but she knew what Ruby was talking about. She’d known about the existence of nearly every new thing she’d seen so far just from spending so much time in the Matrix doing research, but experiencing it all was still a surprise. Things in the Matrix could never be mistaken for reality.

“I mean, it is a little bit riskier than normal to do while you’re still underweight, but I’m not going to stop you just because of that, especially not when you’re living with your doctor.” Ruby seesaws her hand and shrugs. “Shadowrunning is waaay more dangerous anyway.”

“Yeah, I’d really appreciate that.” Blake smiles faintly, then yawns. “Your hands felt kind of weird though, what’s up with them?”

“They’re cyberware, all my limbs are. There’s a layer of skin, but it’s metal underneath.” Ruby taps her arm pointedly.

“Can I feel it?” Blake reaches out a hand to touch Ruby’s upper arm. Ruby nods, and Blake trials her finger curiously along her arm. The surface is skinlike, but with a small application of pressure it’s clear that there was smooth metal beneath that skin, instead of muscle. She runs her hand all along Ruby’s arm, gently squeezing up and down the forearm, looking for when metal ends and muscle begins.

“It’s the whole arm, up past the shoulder.” Ruby’s face is tinted a redder shade of brown than normal, and she smiles giddily as Blake explores. “I need to be strong to haul stuff and people around, but I like being physically smaller, unlike Yang.”

“Those muscles are _really_ impressive.” Blake was very impressed with Yang’s physique. She had never seen anything like in person, and there had been a few times when she just couldn’t stop staring and wondering what those muscles felt like as she was shown around her new home.

“Yeah, she’s really proud of them.” Ruby stares at Blake strangely and inclines her head to the door. “Could you go now? I’ve got some projects that I’m working on and I need to be alone to get stuff done.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Blake carefully makes her way out of Ruby’s operating room, picking her way around a few scattered piles of materials and tools. It seems like an incredibly dangerous condition to keep an operating room in, but Ruby had managed to gracefully pick her way between points on their way in, so it probably worked for her. She closes the door behind herself and stands uncertainly outside of the room. The way that Ruby booted her out feels more than a little bit awkward, but it made sense that she wouldn’t be completely welcome.

“Yo,” Yang pokes her head into the hallway that stretches out from the living room, “if you’re done with Ruby you should come eat some food. I made fried catfish.”

“ _Cat_ fish?” Blake raises her eyebrows, more than a little bit concerned.

“It’s the cheapest kind of fish.” Yang grins. “I didn’t even know you were catlike before I saw you, but if I had I would have had a catfish joke planned out already.”

“Like, say... ‘I went ahead and fried you up?’”

“Not bad, although I don’t think I’d ever eat you for dinner. Dessert, maybe.” Yang sticks out her tongue, then gestures for Blake to come with her.

“I have no idea how to handle this flirting.” Blake blushes and starts walking toward the kitchen.

“That’s what makes it so much fun.” Yang casually rests a hand across Blake’s shoulders and guides her to take a seat on the couch. “I got it, you just relax.”

“It’s weird just being here, I don’t know if I can relax.” Blake lets herself sink between the cushions anyway. “What is there to do around here, anyway?”

“Far as work goes Ruby spends a lot of time building parts for drones and body modification. I help out by trying to get us customers through the Matrix, although I’m not really all that good at it. I can't really find potential customers that easily.” Yang chats as she puts some food on a plate and brings it to Blake.

“I could help you out if you like. I’m great with information processing.” Blake feels like she needs to be doing something to help out in the time before they find a magician and start doing more ordinary work.

“Talk to Ruby about it, she’ll send you a list of everything she has the equipment and skills to do, and prices.” Yang sits next to Blake, waiting for her to take a bit of some food.

“Ruby sort of booted me out of her workspace earlier.” Blake sighs, and reluctantly takes the fork on her plate, spearing the catfish and eyeing it suspiciously. At least it didn’t look like a cat.

“They’re called catfish because of the whiskers.” Yang laughs as Blake recoils from her fish. “Don’t worry, the whiskers get removed. And don’t think anything of whatever Ruby said to get you out of her space, she has some specific needs and she’s generally very blunt about them. She definitely doesn’t dislike you.”

Still watching it suspiciously, Blake takes a bite of the breaded fish and immediately takes another. It’s warm, soft, flaky, and practically melts in her mouth as she shovels the entire thing down her gullet in a few seconds. Plate empty, she looks to Yang with wide eyes. “More.”

Yang snorts with laughter. “I’m glad you like my cooking, but no, I’m guessing you haven’t eaten a meal with as many calories as that in years. Gotta make sure you don’t eat so much you throw up.” 

“Fine. But I do want more.” Blake pouts at Yang, and crosses her arms, even as she falls further between the cushions of the couch. It’s hard to keep her eyes on Yang’s face though, rather than the very large amounts of skin and muscle shown off by her casual clothes.

“More of what exactly?” A wry smile twists its way across Yang’s lips. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that, seeing as how you're still staring at me like I’m catfish.”

“Sorry.” Blake quickly looks at her lap. “I’m not used to being around people that have uh... bodies like yours.”

“Don’t worry about it, I show off the goods because they deserve to be appreciated.” Yang shoots Blake a thumbs-up alongside a wink and a smile, her lilac eyes shining.

“I-a-aaa,” Blake yawns, and a sudden rush of tiredness rushes through her. She slumps woozily in her position, and accidentally ends up with her head resting on Yang’s shoulder. The day had been draining in more ways than one. “I’m gonna take a cat nap.”

“Go ahead.” Yang drapes her arm across Blake’s shoulders. That she’s warm, and she smells like food, are the last things Blake thinks before she falls asleep.

###### Weiss

Weiss gasps in pain as Salem leaves her body, weakening her. She’s too weak to move or cast spells, it feels like at least three of her ribs are broken, and there’s a wet gurgling sound every time she so much as thinks about talking. It only takes a minute for Salem to collect the crate she’s hidden inside of, but the jostling that occurs before she is handed off to her familiar is far more painful than anything else she has experienced. At this point, the primary cause of her silence is the rebreather still lodged in her mouth.

The journey to their destination is lengthy and painful, and Weiss is immediately grateful that she had the foresight to provide Salem with the location of their contact. She’s eventually put on the floor, presumably in the residence of her contact, and nearly loses consciousness before her prison is opened, revealing a girl with a head of short black hair and shining quicksilver eyes who stares down at her seriously.

“Hey, don’t worry. You’re gonna be fine.” The girl smiles, injects something into Weiss’ arm, and continuously coos reassurances as unconsciousness overtakes her.

###### 

Weiss awakes in significantly less pain than she was previously, though that does very little to calm her initial instinct to get the fuck out of whatever situation she’s in. Her ribs are bandaged, and she’s restrained in place, plausibly just so that the bones will set properly. Being sedated by a very scraggly young woman who looked decidedly not like a doctor was not reassuring however, despite the medical care she seems to have received.

The room she finds herself in does nothing to alleviate those concerns. Medical equipment and machine parts are strewn about in piles, and various devices with unknown purposes surround her. The only recognisably benign object she can see is the IV drip connected to her arm, which hopefully contains saline.

At least she isn’t tied down at the wrists. As Weiss gradually regains a greater degree of self-awareness, she realizes that she rested long enough to have recovered from the exertion of having used magic heavily in her journey, so she takes it upon herself to finish her healing and find an explanation as quickly as possible. A healing spell and a couple dozen seconds of sustaining it is enough to repair what obvious damage remains, and fortunately the bindings seem to have been made without intent to hold their subject without their consent. It is the dirtiest room she has ever seen, much less been inside of.

She briefly assenses, and sees a somewhat powerful mana barrier encloses the building that she’s in, explaining Salem’s absence. The spirit could most likely break through it in the event of an emergency, but doing so would probably be seen as an act of aggression by whomever had created the barrier. 

Once Weiss has removed her restraints, it doesn’t take long for the same girl who had sedated her to burst loudly into the room. “Wait, you gotta stay still for your ribs to heal correctly!”

“No,” Weiss glares coldly at the intruder, “I do not. I already healed myself the rest of the way. Now, why am I herer?”

“Cuz you needed medical attention. I had to keep you unconscious for more than two days.” The doctor looks at Weiss like she’s crazy. “I had to suture a punctured lung and set ribs that were all broken in multiple places. And, geez, you’re still covered in bruises.” She frowns, concerned, and begins to reach out a hand toward Weiss’ face.

“I have no intention of staying here, nor of accepting any additional assistance from an unknown doctor who seems absolutely nothing like a doctor.” Weiss slaps the hand away. “How old are you, anyway, I find it utterly implausible that you have completed a residency.”

“Well first of all, I’m a ripperdoc, not a doctor. Second, my name is Ruby and I’m nineteen. Third, what’s a residency?” Ruby stares at Weiss curiously.

“A residency is something real medical professionals do to ensure that they are appropriately skilled.” Weiss glares, very, very ready to insist on leaving immediately. “There is no way in the entirety of Remnant that you are qualified to provide medical care.”

“Hey, I literally just patched you up and saved your life.” Ruby _pouts,_ of all things, and crosses her arms. “‘Sides, I installed my own cyberware, I’m super qualified. And I’m literally a professional, I get paid for this all the time.”

“By criminals, I suppose.” Weiss neglects to mention that she is here with the intention of becoming a criminal to begin with.

“Of course. That’s why my mom called me when you got delivered to her shop anyway. You’re one of her customers, aren’t you?” Ruby squints uncertainly.

“Nepotism. That explains everything.” Weiss shakes her head. “Look, just tell me your price. I have business to attend to.”

“I...” Ruby makes the beginning of an indignant gesture, words dying on her lips. “Why...” She slumps and walks over to one of the many devices scattered about the room, not even bothering to look at Weiss any longer. “Whatever, just go away and talk to Yang about that, she’s the one who does the money things.”

Weiss squints, and is pleased to finally leave the room, only to discover a surprisingly shabby basement beyond it. It shouldn’t be a surprise that everything outside of Atlas is shabby by comparison, but it bothers her regardless. She follows the short hallway into a common area, which contains two more women, one the near mirror image of Ruby, save older and far buffer, and the other a large blond, currently cooking.

“Oh, hey!” The one who looks like Ruby waves from her couch, wielding a broad grin like a blunt instrument. “You’re alive! That’s great, I love new customers!” 

“Are you Summer?” Weiss sighs internally. She had hoped that her contact would be less... cheery. Why on Remnant would a black market dealer greet her customers with a smile?

“Yes-indeedly. And that’s my daughter that you haven’t met, Yang!” Summer makes jazz hands in Yang’s direction, and the latter just waves, not turning her concentration away from whatever food she’s preparing. 

Weiss’ eyebrow twitches involuntarily. Jazz hands? _Jazz hands?_ “Is everyone in this place insane?”

“Nope, we’re just great like that.” Summer rubs her hands together excitedly. “So, what is it that you were looking for from me?”

“My intention is to become a shadowrunner. I need contacts, and a team.” Weiss had previously informed Summer of her status as a skilled shaman, as a threat.

“That’s...” Summer frowns for the first time. “Great.”

“Come again?” Weiss quirks an eyebrow at the strange reaction.

“My daughters do happen to be creating a team.” Summer sighes, her lips pursed. “And they could very much use the assistance of a shaman.”

Weiss looks at Yang. She contemplates Ruby, then Summer, and whether accepting the first offer she receives is a good idea. “Are there any other options available?”

“Matching people with teams is actually more of Rae’s specialty, but no, you don’t have any other options.” Summer’s smile reappears. “Take good care of my babies, okay? Or my wife will kill you.” She’s not joking, but her smile is oddly genuine for someone making a threat.

“Very well.” Weiss sighs. “I suppose I have no other options.” It strikes her that a vast search for her location may already be underway. From there she realizes that she is not currently disguised, and was not previously. She eyes Summer cautiously. “You don’t... recognize me, do you?”

“No?” Summer stares at Weiss with nothing more or less than patient curiosity.

“It would be best to keep it that way, if you know what I mean. I expect that there will be a large scale search for me, given my identity.” Weiss frowns. It isn’t surprising that her face wouldn’t be especially well known this far from Atlas, and it should take some time before anyone so much as considers searching a slum like Patch, but there were precautions that should be taken. “As a matter of fact, I suppose that it would be prudent to surgically alter my appearance.”

“Well, Ruby can take care of that for you. Until then, you’d best stay around here. You wriggly fingers zappy boom-boom types need some time to make mana barriers and stuff when you set up a new home base anyway, right?” Summer wriggles her fingers eccentrically.

Weiss stares blankly at the madwoman standing before her. Why? What is wrong with these people? She shakes her head. Yang seems reasonable enough at least.

“Hey Blake, catch!” Just in time for Weiss to think Yang may be a bastion of reason, she looks at the source of the shout to see Yang throw what appears to be some kind of fried fish at a fourth person who had entered the room without Weiss’ noticing. 

Perhaps the most scraggly looking person Weiss has ever seen jumps up and catches the fish in her mouth, and Weiss realizes that two cat ears sit happily on top of her head as they flick about energetically. Blake shoots Yang a thumbs up before gulping down the food by moving it around with her jaw and lips, her hands never even touching it.

Immediate panic hits Weiss as she reflexively prepares for a fight. “There’s a mutant!” She raises her hands and begins casting a spell, but before she can finish someone tackles her to the ground. 

“Whoa there frendo!” Summer easily bends Weiss’ arms behind her back and pins her to the ground in a surprisingly comfortable hold. “I dunno what kind of life you’ve been living that you’d just attack a Faunus as soon as you see them, but Blake’s just another person, kay?” Weiss suddenly feels as if she’s being chided by her own mother, something that hasn’t happened in more than a decade.

“Who is this?” Blake recoils in a mixture of confusion and hurt feelings.

“This is our fourth teammate, apparently. She hasn’t said what her name is yet, actually.” Yang glares at Weiss, clearly incensed.

“My name is Weiss.” Weiss sighes. “Frankly, I had no idea such creatures were even capable of speech to begin with.” 

“Excuse you?” Blake puts her hands on her hips and glares at Weiss in turn. “What the hell is your problem? We’ve _just_ met.”

“I apologize, the things I have said are clearly an error on my part and the part of my education. I have had an insular life.” Weiss squirms uncomfortably in Summer’s grip. “If you would kindly release me? I accept that there is no threat present against which I need to defend myself.”

“Only as long as you play nice.” Summer releases Weiss and lightly steps back from her prone form. “Well, I’ll go give Ruby the good news.” She beams at everyone in the room one last time before rushing off with a surprising amount of grace.

“In exactly what kind of life is it possible to never meet a single Faunus? That is what you’re implying, isn’t it?” Yang towers over Weiss as she stands up, the great difference in their sizes accentuated by Weiss’ position.

“That is personal, and I will hear no more speak of it.” Weiss straightens out her clothing self-consciously. She has not left a lifetime of shallow words and wrathful acts to be interrogated about said lifetime. “I am here because it was necessary to leave my previous life behind, is that not something common among shadowrunners?”

“Yeah, it probably is.” Blake smiles companionably. “I’m doing that too. And I can get that you’re suddenly experiencing things you’ve never seen before, so don’t worry about it. Just try not to be judgemental. Friends?” She holds a hand out to Weiss, who stares at it distastefully.

“Acquaintances, but do not take it personally. I would scarcely call anyone I’ve just met a friend, regardless of their identity.” Weiss takes a deliberate step away from the other two people in the room, just in time for the return of Summer, Ruby trailing behind her.

“Hey!” Ruby is once again like a mirror image of her mother’s nonsensical energy as she runs up to Weiss and greets her. “I’m so excited! Now we can do stuff, and things!” She gestures at the world around her excitedly.

“Indeed.” Weiss blinks. “Though I do require time to make certain preparations. To begin with, I've noticed that you only have one mana barrier around this place, and that its power is middling. I require both access to that barrier and time to prepare more. I shall make the preparations in my living space.”

“Living space?” Ruby looks at the others. “Oh, right. Are you cool with sharing a bed with the three of us, actually? Space is kinda tight, and so is money to buy explosives for excavating another room.”

“I will do no such thing!” Weiss stares at the others in the room around her, aghast. “How could you possibly make such a suggestion! Is the height of impropriety! I insist on having my own room, and you lot shall be free to be as degenerate as you please, as far away from my sight as possible, thank you very much. I will pay for this excavation.” She turns to Summer. “I presume that you have sold the package that I brought with me?”

“Yep. I got your cash stored in a lockbox at my place. I’ll hook you up with enough of what you need at cost and bring the cash back with the explosives. Family discount and all that.” Summer starts to leave. “Oh, and a bed, I guess. See y’all in a jiffy.” She winks, blows a kiss to Ruby and Yang, and leaves as sprightly as she speaks.

“Alright, while mom’s getting all that, and mam’s on her way for the screening, we’ve got some serious business to handle right away. Weiss, you’d best take a seat.” Yang pulls up a chair, and sits in it backwards, eyes inspecting her curious audience intensely. 

Weiss looks reluctantly at the stained, tattered monstrosity that passes for a couch in places such as these, and sits. “This had better be important.” Shockingly, it’s the most comfortable couch she’s ever been on.

“It’s absolutely crucial.” Yang raises a finger. “Now that we’ve got a team, we need to come up with the most important part of any real, professional, closely-knit, shadowrunning team. A clever name.” She nods solemnly. 

“Is this a joke? Is everything I have experienced in the last three days a hallucination induced by magical overexertion?” Weiss hangs her head in her hands.

“No, she’s right.” Blake nods. “Cool names are cool.”

“Come on, we already know what we’re calling ourselves.” Ruby rolls her eyes humorously. “The Turtlefuckers.”

“Someone please kill me.” Weiss feels as if she’s on the verge of having an aneurysm.

“Ruby, we talked about this, we aren’t doing something derivative.” Yang wags a finger at her sister, as if anything that is currently happening is sane or reasonable. “It has to be original.”

“Fine. What about an acronym or an anagram, then?” Ruby taps her chin thoughtfully. “The first initials of our names are Y, B, W, and R. What can that spell?”

“BWRY could be pronounced bourgeois.” Yang shoots a pointed look at Weiss. “Not that I’d want to call us that, just saying a certain someone has that kind of vibe.”

“Right Badass Warriors of...” Blake nearly finds something excellent, but she falters. “Yangst?”

“Okay, not an acronym. Too long. Gotta keep this kind of thing concise.” Ruby grasps the invisible concept of what they’re looking for in her hands. “What about RWBY? It’s a pretty crazy coincidence that we can basically just spell my name with the letters of our first names.”

“I’ll take it!” Weiss butts in before something cleverly stupid can be proposed, supposing that this is the most reasonable things she’s likely to find.

“Yeah, I can live with that.” Blake shrugs.

“I’m all for naming us after my favourite sister.” Yang nods, shooting finger guns and a wink at Ruby.

“Alright! Team RWBY, it’s time for our first mission.” Ruby stands on top of the coffee table and strikes a dramatic pose. “Do an ultrasonic scan to make sure that there isn’t a room in the path of where we plan to excavate Weiss’ room, and then wait for mom to get back with the explosives! Also known as Operation Boom-Boom. And all of that is my job, actually.” She nods, and zooms off to her workshop. “I’m on it!”

For neither the first, nor the last time, Weiss is very, very concerned about exactly what madness she has gotten herself into.


	4. I Reach For Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's technically monday, just very early in the monday
> 
> Alucard45 is my beta reader, and he does goodly feedback

###### Ruby

Ruby absentmindedly muses about Weiss as she sets up the equipment she needs to be able to make sure there isn’t an already existing room where she’s going to try and excavate Weiss’. Weiss was definitely a little bit mean before. Ruby could get that though, she’d be pretty concerned if she was ever getting treated by a complete stranger of a doctor who was so obviously young. Still, she didn’t have to keep going on like she did. It’s a good thing that Weiss is too ephemerally pretty for Ruby to be frustrated with her. Something about the way that her long white ponytail bobbed as she shook her head in distress had kept distracting Ruby earlier.

The last day was simultaneously easy and difficult. Blake was an easy person to live with, by all standards. So far she’d been clean enough for Ruby and Yang, who are admittedly on the lax side of things when it comes to housekeeping, she wasn’t confrontational or noisy, and the previous night had been slightly awkward at first, but the three of them had adapted well. At the same time however, change is perpetually a challenge for Ruby, even the changes she asks for. Living with a new person is draining as a matter of being something that’s happening, regardless of who it is. In a way, this may have been a bad idea. After all, around anyone other than Yang, Ruby’s anxiety seems to be perpetually lurking, draining her energy.

Weiss in particular has not exactly been helpful in alleviating that anxiety. The opposite, basically. Just being around her for the last few minutes was tiring, even if the two of them hadn't really interacted. It’s exciting to finally have a team, but being around people is so much work.

With the scanner set up, Ruby goes back to the living room, hoping to just chill on the couch and do some reading or something, but instead she walks in on Yang and Weiss arguing at the table.

“I. Do. Not. Drink.” Weiss shoots a deathly glare at Yang as she pushes a glass filled with golden liquid away from her seat.

“C’mon Ice Queen, we gotta celebrate making a big ol’ team.” Yang insists, her speech already slightly lilted. There’s an empty glass already at her side, and Ruby has no idea exactly how much time passed while she was setting up the equipment. “Might as well, with some steady income coming our way.” Yang’s smile is forced, the way that it is when she has when she’s enjoying herself to ignore something.

“Yang,” Ruby tries to keep her voice casual, not that she understands how people interpret that sort of thing anyway, “remember how I feel about uncle Qrow?”

“What’s...” Yang’s gaze hovers on Weiss for a moment before she hangs her head. “Sorry Weiss.” In an instant her mood changes to moping as she nurses the glass she had poured out for Weiss.

Ruby winces. She knows she’s going to need to have a talk with Yang later. If she can remember. But Yang isn’t wrong, they should celebrate making a team, and hopefully become better friends in the process. What would help them do both of those things?

“I know!” Ruby claps her hands loudly to get the attention of the three other people in the room. “Why don’t we play a party game while we wait for mom to get back? It’s probably still going to take a few hours.”

Blake turns around on the couch to look at Ruby, though her gaze is oddly unfocused. “That’s a pretty interesting idea.”

At the same time, Weiss shoots a quizzical look at Ruby. “What possible association could there be between the words ‘party’ and ‘game’?”

The entire room stares at Weiss.

“Parties are fun, and so are games.” Yang answers the question in the most literal possible sense.

“Parties are business ventures.” Weiss’ confusion manifests itself as an angry growl.

“Weiss, no!” Ruby immediately runs to Weiss’ side and hugs her. “I can’t believe that's what parties are to you, now we have to have a little party and make you have fun.” Normally, she hates parties, but Yang knows well enough to make sure that whatever they actually do doesn’t disturb Ruby’s senses.

“Unhand me!” Without waiting for Ruby to respond, Weiss makes an arcane gesture, and Ruby feels an unseen force lifting her into the air as she lets go of Weiss. She crosses her arms and glares. “Next time I will not use such a gentle method of retaliation.”

“Huh?” Ruby flails about, more than slightly panicked by her sudden weightlessness. “Why?” She was just giving Weiss a hug.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Yang stands up and very nearly hits Weiss, her fist clenched at her side and eyes burning with red as Weiss glares coolly back at her.

“I do not appreciate sudden physical contact. My response is perfectly reasonable.” Weiss releases the spell with a flick of her wrist, sending Ruby falling onto the floor face first with a soft thud. 

“Ow.” Ruby groans, deciding that she doesn’t want to get up right away. That hurt, physically and emotionally. 

“Hmf.” Weiss scoffs, and storms over to the couch, taking a seat on the couch as far from Blake as possible.

“You okay?” Yang scoops Ruby up into a big hug and carries her to the couch, glaring at Weiss.

“Yeah, I guess.” Ruby sighs heavily as she’s deposited next to Blake.

“Perhaps next time you will restrain yourself.” Weiss grouses, then pointedly turns her head away.

“Okay, clearly I need to force you to interact with us if we’re going to get along, so party game it is.” Yang pulls up a chair, sets it across from the couch, and takes a seat.

###### Weiss

Internally, Weiss rolls her eyes. Of course it would be necessary to tolerate yet another social event of some kind or another for the sake of pleasing the people she is now working with. There simply was no escaping it, even in an utter slum.

“Fine. I will acquiesce to this farce, but only because I in fact have quite literally nothing better to do. Not even so much as a scroll at the moment.” Weiss sighs. It is better than doing nothing, though there is something to be considered. She assenses, and checks her new teammates. Ruby and Yang are both as unawakened as they appear, healthy, and generally unimportant to the Astral Plane. She tries to ignore the genuine hurt worn heavily across Ruby’s sleeve, even in the Astral Plane. 

Blake, however, is quite interesting. She’s a technomancer, which will hopefully be a good thing given that they are both on the same side, but Weiss decides to keep a careful watch on her regardless. Furthermore, there are a great number of nanobots in her head, though Weiss has no way of knowing what they may be doing. It is incredibly suspicious, for someone who appeared to be coming from destitution.

“And I’m guessing you’re going to say that we can’t ask questions that are directly about each other’s past, too?” Yang looks vaguely exasperated as she attempts to negotiate.

“That is acceptable.” Weiss rolls her eyes, not entirely sure what happened while she was observing the Astral Plane, but not particularly concerned with such either.

“All right then, you first. Truth or bear?”

“Excuse you?” Weiss stares flatly at Yang, utterly unamused.

“Yeah, I thought you weren’t paying attention. We’re playing truth or dare, and the past is off limits for your sake.” Yang smirks as if she’s just caught Weiss in a lie.

“What is truth or dare?”

“So you really haven’t had much of a life then, huh?” Yang’s voice is laced with a hint of sympathy.

“I do believe that you just agreed not to pry into such matters.” Weiss glares. “Furthermore, I do not care to receive your sympathies.”

“Then you won’t have them, but to be perfectly honest the only reason I care is because I’m looking for a reason to like you, and, hey, I like to consider myself a reasonable person, I can look past some stuff. But if you’re going to keep being frosty, then by all means, continue, and deny yourself any form of support network.” Yang shrugs. “Anyway, the idea is we take turns picking people and they get to choose whether we make them answer a question or complete a dare. Then the person who was chosen picks the next person.”

“Then I shall begin. Blake, I choose you. Truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” Blake flicks her attention away from something unseen to the room around her.

“Why are there nanobots in your head?”

“There aren’t any nanobots in my head. Where would I even get nanobots?” Blake frowns.

“No, I’m certain that there are nanobots in your head. I detected them by assensing.” Weiss frowns in turn. Nanobots are expensive. They can’t possibly be there by accident.

“That shouldn’t be. Let me check.” Blake’s eyes focus on something that isn’t present again for a few long seconds. “Fuck. I found them, only because you pointed them out. This is... really weird.” She grimaces. “These things are practically indistinguishable from my own persona.”

“Am I meant to know what that means?” Weiss carefully creates some distance between herself and Blake, just in case something exploded.

“You don’t know what a persona is?” Blake refocuses on reality once again to stare at Weiss.

“Technology is not one of my numerous areas of specialization.” Weiss turns her chin up at the question.

“In other words, you’re useless with it?” Yang snickers.

“I am perfectly competent. I once found an amusing video recommended to me by my butler in a mere few minutes.” Weiss turns up her nose at the others as they all start laughing at her with varying levels of shamelessness.

“But, uh, anyway, about the nanobots.” Blake quickly kills the laughter. “I have no idea why they’re there, but I can tell that right now they aren’t doing anything, and anything includes transmitting any kind of signal. Which is really weird, but they seem to be completely inert.”

“That’s still worrying. Is there anything you can do to figure out more?” Ruby’s voice is worried.

“I don’t know. I can’t seem to find any actual programming in them. They’re just sort of connected to the Matrix and they don’t do anything else.” Blake shudders. “Can we just... move on? I really don’t know what to do about this.”

“Yeah, we should do that.” Yang nods. “Blake? Your choice?”

“Ruby, truth or dare?” Blake questions the girl sitting next to her.

“Dare me.” Ruby rubs her hands together enthusiastically.

“I dare you to sit in Weiss’ lap for the rest of the evening.” Blake smirks.

“Well, Weiss has to be okay with it, but okay.” Ruby looks at Weiss curiously.

“That is a... disturbing dare.” Weiss grimaces. Perhaps a degree of appeasement would serve well in this situation. Having her teammates displeased with her would be counterproductive. At the very least, their intentions appeared to be decent. “Very well, so long as you restrain your hands to your own person.”

“Cool!” Ruby grins and rushes over to take a seat in Weiss’ lap. It’s a little bit awkward as she settles, due to her being taller than Weiss, but they manage to find a relatively comfortable position. Weiss can’t help but notice that Ruby smells of roses. “Okay Weiss, I choose you.”

“Truth.” Weiss doesn’t dare consider what sort of dare she may face after that display from Blake. Ruby’s presence in her lap is in fact far more distracting than she had expected. Every touch seems to be accentuated in immaculate relief against the input of her other senses.

“How do you feel about me sitting in your lap?” Ruby turns around and looks at Weiss innocently.

Weiss stares at Ruby, utterly dumbfounded. “How do I feel about it?” She squirms uncomfortably. That’s exactly the thing that she was just trying to not think about. “Girl soft... pretty.”

“And you owe me thirty lien.” Yang snaps her fingers at Ruby, a victorious grin on her face.

“Excuse you?” Weiss glares at the sisters.

“Yang and I bet on whether or not you were a lesbian.” Ruby smiles nervously. “That response is pretty definitive. It's how I feel around girls too. But it’s not like we planned this or something! I just asked that question because I really did want to make sure you were okay with this, becauseIcanhearyourheartbeatingreallyquicklyandit’s-” 

“Hush.” Weiss claps a hand over Ruby’s mouth, more than slightly disoriented by everything that was just said, and distressed by being suddenly called out for tendencies she had hid perfectly from the world around her up until this point. “Would you care to repeat yourself at a comprehensible speed? Furthermore, how did you know?”

Ruby’s words are muffled up until the moment that Weiss realizes she still has a hand clamped over her mouth. “I can hear your heart beating fast and it sounds really pretty but I was also worried about you because of how you reacted to me trying to hug you earlier. And, I mean, it’s kind of obvious because of your answer to my question.”

“Well, you see, I have never been in such close proximity to a woman other than my sister before, so I was simply overwhelmed. Of course I have no such tendencies.” Weiss does her best to salvage her veneer of disinterest. The small unintended movements Ruby makes in her lap are doing absolutely nothing to assist in that endeavor.

“That’s awful, and you deserve a hug if you want one.” Ruby pouts. “Also, I don’t want to scare you or something buuut....”

“It’s really obvious that you’re attracted to women, but there’s nothing wrong with that and if you ever need moral support Ruby and I both are too, although to be specific I’m pansexual.” Yang diplomatically intervenes and rescues the point of Ruby’s awkward ramble. 

“And I’m bi.” Blake raises her hand supportively. “Just for the sake of getting everything out in the open.”

“I...” Weiss stares at the people around her, slack-jawed. “Oh.” She accepts Ruby's offer of a hug, wallowing in the need to hold onto something as she adjusts to this sudden and new circumstance. “Are you saying that it isn’t wrong of me?”

###### Yang

The little game of truth or dare ends pretty quickly once Weiss breaks down and lets everyone comfort her about the fact that she’s a relentless lesbian. The fact that Weiss was somehow able to listen to mam rambling about mom earlier and not manage to pick up on anything would have been amusing if the situation weren’t so serious. Yang can’t help knowingly nudging her sister in the side a few times as they do so. Ruby’s always had a thing for mean girls, and any kind of girl really, which is a very understandable mood. 

Yang does her best to avoid expressing sympathy toward Weiss, and focus on being happy to support her instead. Sure, she didn’t like the first impression Weiss had given off, but she’d also managed to bother the magician with pressure to drink in the midst of an influx of mildly inebriated camaraderie, everyone deserves a second chance.

Blake primarily sits on the side lines through Weiss’ minor crisis. She’s supportive and kind, but still a bit distant and distracted. Yang can’t blame her, she’s probably trying to figure out something about the situation with the nanobots in her head, and she probably doesn’t have any experience with internalized homophobia anyway. 

It’s nice just to have new people, hopefully friends, in the house again. Yang can’t remember the last time someone who wasn’t family or a client was even here. Illegal business really is too isolating sometimes. She missed socialization, even if it seems like she’s the only one who has a tendency to actually want to go outside. At least until Weiss gets her face changed. But Blake is definitely an introvert, and she’s already complained about the city being too loud because of all the cars and densely packed people. 

Ruby excuses herself from the gathering not long after Weiss is recovered, leaving Yang alone with her two fresh meat recruits.

“Alright, how about we go ahead and get some basic training in? You’re both new to this, so you sure as hell need it, no matter how good you may be in your respective fields.” Yang wishes that there was another way to get by, without shadowrunning. Still, she makes sure to be enthusiastic about teaching her new students, and she genuinely is.

“I suppose that is practical.” Weiss smiles as she settles into the couch. Being in the same room as her is much more pleasant now that she’s let down her walls a little bit.

“Sounds like fun.” Blake’s ears stand at attention as she mirrors Weiss, her attention fully diverted from her previous actions. It’s nice to see her more relaxed after the information about the nanobots.

“Okay.” Yang takes a deep breath, and does her best to remember and repeat the lecture she got from mam back when she first started. “Rule number one. Be paranoid. Anything that you connect to the Matrix will be hacked, if a job seems suspicious it probably is, if you don’t know what something is or don’t like a given situation, get the fuck away from it. Assume that everyone and everything wants to kill you and is in fact far more nefarious than it appears. Always expect everything to go wrong, and remember that the only constant is that the people you trust will have your back. Furthermore, never trust anyone but your family. That’s how you survive this shitshow.”

“That...” Blake stared at Yang cautiously. “That took a really sudden and dark turn.”

“Don’t misunderstand. Ruby and I, and our entire family make a point of treating people well, but this shit is dangerous. I don’t expect your immediate trust, nor do I give it. Ruby does give it, but she’s reckless and we both know it.” 

“Wait, wasn’t that the point of Raven doing the whole thing where she read my mind?” Blake quirks an eyebrow at Yang.

“Damnit. She’s not supposed to do that.” Yang shakes her head. “Mind probing people is a really shitty thing to do, I’m sorry about that. Don’t worry, mom will punish her for that when I let her know.” Probably in ways she really doesn’t want to know anything about.

“Who is Raven?” Weiss looks very concerned.

“She’s Summer’s wife, Ruby and I call her mam. You haven’t met her yet, she’s a hermetic mage.” Yang smiles. Raven really is overprotective sometimes. It would be sweet if she wasn’t so aggressive about it.

Weiss scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Hermetic mages. No respect for their power, or for spirits.”

“Hey, that’s my mam you’re talking about.” Yang wags a finger at Weiss. “Make that kind of comment again and I’ll give you some hand to hand combat training.”

“Isn’t that functionally flirting?” Weiss smirks.

“Only if you want it to be.” Yang does her best not to blush as she shoots back an actual flirt.

Blake clears her throat. “Can we talk about shadowrunning again?”

“I’ll give you close quarters combat training too if you ask nicely.” Yang winks, soaking up Blake’s complete and immediate inability to respond. “Anyway, rule number two is cover your tracks. Simple enough, make sure no one ever figures out who you are. You guys know more than I do about that in your own fields, but I’ll be taking care of matters of physical evidence once we get around to needing that.”

“Combat situations often do not provide the time needed to scrub away my astral signature.” Weiss is mostly talking to herself, but Yang answers anyway.

“You can just use a gun if you need to.” Yang squints suspiciously. “You do know how to use a gun, right?”

“Of course not. I hate guns, they’re crude weapons, with none of the finesse or skill involved in proper magic.” Weiss scoffs.

“Yeah, well, bullets are nowhere near as useful evidence as your astral signature is.” Yang rolls her eyes. Even she knows that much. “I’ll have to teach you how to handle a gun decently at some point.”

“What do you use to fight?” Blake questions.

“My melee weapons are a giant fuck-off greatsword and a garrote. I also carry an assault rifle, but I favor the greatsword in close quarters, and the garrote pairs well with magical invisibility.” Yang does her best to list off her particular brand of violence as casually as she can. Nevertheless, just mentioning squeezes her heart, just a little. “It’s always best to finish a job without a fight though, it attracts less attention.”

Weiss looks distinctly uncomfortable as she stops looking directly at Yang. “I see. You are right that it would be foolish of me to rely solely upon magic, of course.”

“Good. Now let’s talk a bit of shop about how we’re going to work together.” Yang rubs her hands together. This part is slightly less unpleasant. “How about we start with what spells you know?”

###### Raven

Raven is only slightly surprised when a spirit manifests right next to her as she’s about to ring Ruby and Yang’s doorbell. It’s a surprisingly humanoid spirit, save for the coloration.

“Excuse me, but would you kindly allow me through your mana barriers?” The spirit's voice drips with sarcasm, and a quick check of the Astral Plane confirms that, yes, this spirit is much more than powerful enough to simply force her way through said barriers.

“Why do you want through?” Raven eyes the spirit cautiously. 

“The one who summoned me is currently within.” Raven notices the careful phrasing of how the spirit describes her summoner. They must have some form of unusual arrangement. “You may have already heard of an individual brought here for the treatment of her injuries.”

“Very well.” Raven quickly modifies the barriers to allow the spirit to pass through. She vanishes without comment, and Raven heads inside to meet this new visitor.

“Hey mam, this is Weiss. She’s our fourth team member now!” Yang sits in the common room with Blake and Weiss, and waves to Raven as she comes in.

“So, you are the hermetic mage, are you?” Weiss stares at Raven critically.

“Why, are you a shaman?” Raven narrows her eyes in turn. She doesn’t care for shamans, the hippies.

“Of course. Frankly, the idea that scientific rules and principles can be applied to magic is ridiculous, and I am convinced that the only reason why such approaches work at all is that your own subjective belief influences your magical capabilities without requiring any actual competence on your part.” Weiss ends her rant with an upturning of her chin.

“Oh really? And you use magic how exactly? By wiggling your fingers at something and believing in the power of friendship? Do you have a full thirty-second magical girl transformation that you go through every time as well?” Raven smirks.

“My tradition is time-honored, well respected, and far more valuable to me and my life than your own.” Weiss scoffs.

“Oh really? And, pray tell, what tradition is that?” This girl speaks like a noble, and has white hair. Raven wonders...

“ _That_ is private information.”

“Certainly it isn’t because such information might reveal your identity.” Raven smirks at the look on Weiss’ face. A dead giveaway. “Well, perhaps not then.” 

Weiss sighs heavily. “At least you aren’t a technomancer. No offense, Blake.”

“Some taken.” Despite her words, Blake has an amused smile.

“True. Technology can’t be trusted at all.” Raven nods.

“What I do may be magic, but anything involving a computer is clearly the true witchcraft in this world.” Weiss agrees.

“My scroll once told me that Summer wasn’t the most beautiful person in the world.” Raven wags her finger at Blake, the nearest physical manifestation of technology. “So I destroyed it with a fireball.”

“And that’s why mom has parental controls enabled on your new scroll.” That isn’t the only reason, but Yang most certainly does not want to know about those other reasons. Yang rolls her eyes. “Also, wait, are we just acknowledging that Blake is a technomancer? It is kind of obvious.” 

“Well, I guess so, since you just outed me after telling me I should keep it secret.” Blake shrugs.

“Blake also mentioned that you mind probed her. I’m really disappointed in you. You know you aren’t supposed to do that.” Yang shakes her head, and Raven does feel just a little bit guilty about it. “I’m telling mom about this.” The guilt immediately evaporates, replaced by anticipation as she considers what Summer is going to do to punish her.

“Good, good.” Raven rubs her hands together gleefully. 

“Ewww.” Yang wrinkles her nose. “I swear, sometimes it seems like you do questionable things for the worst possible reasons.”

“Your parents fuck dear, get used to it.” Raven subtly winks at the two people in the room who aren’t her children as she walks over and reassuringly pats Yang on the head. “Besides, my reasons are nothing more than the sake of keeping my daughters safe. I will do anything.”

###### Blake

With Weiss and Yang focused on Raven, Blake decides to use the time to do more thinking about the offer Ruby made her. What does she even want her body to be like? She’d never bothered seriously thinking about it before, it wasn’t as if she had had any access to medical professionals in the Underhive, illicit or not. And all of a sudden she has an opportunity to make a deliberate decision.

After a while Blake decides to leave and find Ruby. She does have some idea of what she wants, and Ruby can probably tell her more about the rest in detail. She finds Ruby in her workshop, at a large desktop computer with multiple monitors connected to a series of equipment, including 3-d and circuit printers. 

“See how it sings like a sad heart, and joyously screams out it’s pain!” Ruby loudly and poorly sings along to a song with headphones on, not even noticing Blake as she comes in. “Sounds that build high like a mountain, notes that fall gently, like rain. Dodododo-”

“Ruby?” Balke cautiously pokes Ruby on the shoulder, earring a surprised jolt from Ruby as she looks away from a CAD program and takes off her headphones.

“Ah! Oh, it’s just you.” Ruby clears her throat awkwardly and settles back into her chair. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk about that gender stuff you mentioned earlier.” Blake shuffles her feet nervously.

“Oh, okay. Go ahead.” Ruby sets her headphones aside on her desk and swivels her chair to face Blake attentively.

“The first thing that I was thinking about is that I want to have more body fat.”

“Getting fed a decent amount of food combined with the titty skittles should take care of most of that for you. The rest has to wait until your body is done changing.”

“Well, I mean more than just in terms of secondary sex characteristics and gaining weight to an average level. I want to have a lot of body fat.” Blake is sure that she sounds uncertain and Ruby is going to question her motives and tell her that it’s an impractical idea, but she doesn’t.

“Okay.” Ruby just nods and thinks for a moment. “Right after a long period of not having enough food is actually a really good time to do something like that, although we might not be able to reach whatever your goal is before your metabolism adjusts. Could you be more specific about how much fat you want to have?”

“Enough that wherever on my torso you poke is squishy and you can’t tell if I have arm or leg muscles.” Blake smiles. It’s good to be able to just tell Ruby about it and not be judged in the slightest. Time spent browsing the Matrix and studying the world above her had led her to expect something far less accepting than this.

“Alright. You’ll ultimately just need to say something when you want to stabilize at what you have, but until then I’ll change your diet with that kind of body type in mind.” Ruby smiles in a way that makes Blake’s heartbeat just a little bit faster. “Any other requests?”

“You could kiss me.” Blake has no idea what she's thinking even in the brief moment after she says it. It’s the opposite in fact, she’s entirely stopped thinking and is perfectly happy to closely watch the way that the irises of Ruby’s metallic silver cybereyes dilate in response to her offer.

Ruby tugs Blake’s hand, and she falls into Ruby’s lap with a gasp. It’s comfortable as they press their bodies close, lips meshing together softly. Blake sinks into Ruby like a warm blanket, letting her gentle touch guide them both through the kiss that tastes of delicious foods she’s never had before. 

The only description Blake can find for how it feels to kiss Ruby is sweetness and lightning. It’s cloying and heady and electric without being too much. Only when her lungs are tightly squeezing her chest does she stop kissing and rest her head on Ruby’s shoulder, her tail flailing about wildly with excitement.

They sit there quietly together for a little while, neither quite sure what to say. Blake is happy to stay like that, as comfortable and safe as she’s been in her life, with the knowledge that she’s only going to get closer to being who she is as time goes on.


	5. Belting Things Out

###### Ruby

Talking is hard for Ruby sometimes. Especially when there’s a pretty girl in her lap that she just kissed and she’s still incredibly flustered from said kiss. She keeps thinking about reaching up and scratching right behind Blake’s ears, but it would probably be a bad idea to try without asking, so she doesn’t. 

“So, um, what was that?” Ruby has no idea what’s happening on her end when it comes to emotions, so following Blake’s lead sounds like a good idea.

“I sort of just, feel pretty comfortable here, and I’ve never kissed anyone before, and you’re really cute, so... yeah.” Blake’s ears press flat against her head shyly. “I wouldn’t mind doing it again sometime, just as a casual thing, or getting to know you a bit better.”

“Both of those things sound like pretty good ideas.” Ruby’s face flushes with a little bit of heat at the thought of kissing Blake again. “We could do both.”

“Yeah, we should do both.” Blake smiles with a little bit more confidence, then leans up and kisses Ruby on the cheek.

It’s incredibly difficult for Ruby not to just sit there staring blankly at the girl directly in front of as she’s overwhelmed with very gay thoughts. She could easily just sit like that for hours on end, holding Blake affectionately.

“Mom’s back, time to get cracking and blasting!” Yang shouted loudly enough for them to hear her from the living room, prompting Blake to get up and Ruby save her work as quickly as possible.

“Alright, let’s blow some stuff up!” Ruby rubs her hands together eagerly and runs away from her workshop to give her mom a tackle hug, despite having seen her just a few hours ago. 

“Yes indeedly!” Summer carefully holds a box of explosives in one hand as her free arm wraps around Ruby to return the hug. “It’s gonna be a breeze.”

“I look forward to finally being able to distance myself from you lot of madwomen.” Weiss rolls her eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to burst in there whenever you get bored.” Yang wiggles her eyebrows at Weiss, who scowls in response.

“I _will_ magically seal my door such that anyone attempting to enter receives a severe electric shock.”

“Kinky.” Yang winks, prompting a groan from two of her relatives.

“Like mother, like daughter.” Raven comments dryly from the corner of the room.

“Can we just get this business over with already?” Weiss rolls her eyes even harder, though her pale cheeks seem to have a faint pink tint to them.

“If my customer insists.” Summer switches to business mode and hands the explosives off to Yang, then explains the process for the sake of the two newcomers in the room. “Yang is the explosives expert, so she’ll handle the preparation and detonation while we unpack all the construction equipment and the furniture, then we load the debris into my business van, which I’ve parked near the entrance. After that, just need to slap down the floor, ceiling, and wall panels and let them adhere themselves, then decorate to taste. Also, your big sack of cash is with the rest of the goods.”

“Thank you.” Weiss nods, and they all get to work.

It’s an exciting process, mostly because Ruby knows that once this is done Blake and Yang will probably start working together to find them a job to run, or maybe mom or mam will give them a hot tip on something special. The work isn’t too hard either, with cyberlimbs. It only takes a few hours to get everything set up, with Ruby and Yang doing most of the heavy lifting, though Weiss is able to lift plenty of things as well, using a levitation spell.

The finished room is twelve by ten feet, same as the other three rooms that they’ve excavated. A simple bed and dresser are the only furniture.

“It is so... small.” Weiss wrinkles her nose at the space. It’s pretty decent by Ruby’s standards. “Nonetheless, it is better than a gilded cage.”

“You’re welcome!” Ruby means it as she smiles at Weiss, genuinely glad to have her hear.

“However, I do not understand why you have an absolute insistence that this room be the same size as the others when it would simply require additional scans to make sure that nothing is in the way.” Weiss softens a little but, but remains slightly displeased.

“It has to be the same size and in the same place as the room across from it. It just has to.”

“Uniformity is hardly a pleasing aesthetic in surroundings as simple as these.”

“No, I don’t care about decoration or anything like that. It just has to be that way. You wouldn’t understand.” Ruby shakes her head.

“Anyway,” Yang saves Ruby from any further interrogation, “now that this extra space is all set up, you two still need clothes, so why don’t we all go shopping? Weiss’ treat.”

“Excuse you?” Weiss nearly screeches.

“Relax princess, you’ve literally got a duffel bag full of cash, and I promise you clothes down here are way cheaper than they are wherever it is you come from. You can consider taking us all out on a nice shopping trip payment for Ruby surgically altering your face, and saving you earlier, she’d do it for free otherwise.” 

“That is reasonable enough, I suppose.” Weiss sighes. “Speaking of which, that is the next matter of business to take care of before taking serious missions. While I can astrally project for most purposes, it is always best to have the option of appearing in person without needing to sustain an illusion.”

“I can do that whenever, it’ll only take a little bit to make you unrecognisable to facial recognition, do you care about looking different to people too?” Ruby had sort of forgotten about that, but it should only take a few hours to do at some point.

“I need to look different enough that I am plausibly not the same person as myself, but being vaguely recognisable would be beneficial, yes.” Weiss nods.

“Alright, you can usually trick people with a face scar or something, so that and a few micro adjustments will do the trick.” Ruby observes Weiss’ face carefully. “What about something right over your eye? That’d be pretty hot.” Mmmm, women with scars.

“Sure.” Weiss shrugs and grabs a fistful of cash from her duffel bag, shoves it in her pocket, and leaves the room. “Let’s head out.”

###### Blake

Seeing Yang and Ruby once they’ve changed into their streetwear is perhaps the most glorious moment of Blake’s life. Ruby is wearing sunglasses, a bright red vest, black corset, dark red blouse, a short red skirt, and black tights that create a strip of highly distracting skin in between the tops of the tights and the bottom of the skirt. All of it is covered in a highly unnecessary number of belts and buckles, including a belt around her upper thigh that squeezes her flesh every so subtly, along with long heavy combat boots.

Yang’s outfit consists of a pair of jeans with many large holes in them, a very low cut yellow crop top that provides a full view of her abs, a pair of crooked black belts accented with golden buckles, and a black cloak that goes down to slightly below her hips.

“Isn’t being conspicuous like that a bad thing?” Blake isn’t quite drooling enough that she slurs her words, but she’s close. “Also, why sunglasses?”

“The more obvious you are when you’re doing something legal the harder it is for someone to recognise you when you’re being inconspicuous.” Yang is almost ignoring Weiss and Blake’s shared attention to her outstanding abs. “And the sunglasses let Ruby hide that she’s got one eye on Crescent Rose’s status feed.”

“Crescent Rose?” Weiss quirks an eyebrow coldly.

“My sweet baby drone network! I built them all myself and I can show them to you sometime, if you like.” Ruby looks almost bashful as she brags about her babies. “They provide surveillance whenever I go out to make sure we don’t get robbed or followed or something. I’m a bit defenseless without them.”

“I’d love to take a look at them, and their software.” Blake smiles at Ruby, who blushes as if she’d just said something suggestive. Hardware isn’t her thing, but she had never dealt with a swarm of drones before, how their software works sounds like useful information. 

“You can look at my software anytime.” Ruby mutters under her breath, and Blake can only hear because of her cat ears. The implication is enough to make her tail stand up straight.

“You two can flirt later, when you’re helping each other pick out new clothes.” Yang shakes her head and starts to herd everyone out the door. “And please try to do it like normal people next time, instead of nerds.”

“That’s flirting?” Ruby questions herself before running ahead of the rest of them and jumping into a nondescript gray van while signaling for everyone else to pile into the back.

The inside of the van is lit up by lighting strips about shoulder height for a seated passenger. Aside from the driver seat, the only seats were metal protrusions from the walls with seatbelts welded onto them. It makes sense that the van of someone tech-savvy and prone to being shot at would be windowless, and instead rely on external camera feeds routed through the driver’s VR console for navigation and steering.

“Let’s start with clothes, we know a place that has an extensive collection of belts.” Yang grins at Weiss, who turns her head away indignantly.

“If you wish.” Weiss glances thoughtfully at the driver’s seat, and the van begins to accelerate at a pace that’s probably illegal, and unsafe for any civilian driver.

###### 

The store in question is privately owned, and thus nearly every surface is covered in a massive variety of colorful clothes and accessories, more so than a business that could afford luxuries like space would bother with. The clerc at the counter had been visibly perturbed by Blake’s ears when they first came in, but hadn’t said anything.

“I don’t want to show off like you two, not yet.” Blake shakes her head at a black crop top offered to her by Yang. “Just help me find some comfortable oversized shirts and pants.”

Ruby nods understandingly. “Dysphoria hoodies it is." She presents Blake with a comforting black hoodie and some jeans of regular size, which are oversized, given her current state.

“Thanks.” Blake grabs the clothes just in time to turn around and see Weiss burst elegantly out of the only changing room in the store, and forget how to breathe in response. She’s changed out of clothes that were probably inconspicuous by her standards and into a pale blue sleeveless dress, vivid blue shrug, frilly white combat boots, and a series of white belts with various pouches and buckles. Yang carries more similar belts, presumably for Weiss.

“There you go, isn’t functional and sexy better than fancy?” Yang nearly slaps Weiss’ ass approvingly, but seems to think better of it at the last second, instead turning it into a handshake.

“This is not something I would have ever chosen for myself, but I am surprised to find something so acceptable in a place such as this.” Weiss eyes Yang’s hand cautiously before slapping it away.

“Sure thing princess.” Yang just smiles confidently and grabs some new clothes for herself as Weiss is changing back. “I think I narrowly avoided being _belt_ ed.”

Blake can’t help giggling at the bad pun as Ruby just cringes. “Make sure you _strap_ that information into your brain.”

“I won’t do it again, unless I slip up or _buckle_ under pressure.” Yang shoots finger guns in response.

Weiss’ face briefly appears as the changing room door cracks open. “I can and will make all of you suffer without inflicting the slightest harm to your corporeal bodies.” Her tone isn’t quite cold enough to be taken seriously, and instead the other three all start laughing, with only minor attempts to muffle the sound.

Blake spends the rest of their trip trying not to stare at Ruby and Yang too much. She’s very attracted to both of them, though only in a physical way, and she doesn’t really care to act on it, but staring is fun, and so is sharing an occasional meaningful glance with Ruby. It’s even more obvious than usual that the two of them are the introverted ones, and it’s nice, it gives them time to just talk to each other.

Out of nowhere, Ruby gasps like she’s been hit as they’re looking through some pants. “You’ve never had cookies before, have you?” 

“No.” Blake has a distinct feeling that Ruby’s going to fix that.

“Alright, I’m making some tonight after dinner with mom’s recipe. They’re amazing!” Ruby’s voice is a breathless awed whisper that has Blake idly wondering what other things she might say like that.

“Sounds good to me. Although I really am happy just being well fed.”

“Nonsense! Cookies are an important part of any balanced meal.” Ruby huffs adorably, her hands on her hips.

“Somehow I don’t think that’s true.” Blake chuckles as they make their way for the counter.

###### Weiss

The shopping trip continued into purchasing food with which to fully stock the refrigerator, something that Weiss had to admit was certainly affordable by her standards, and added up to far less than a sane doctor would charge for the services she had received from Ruby, though Ruby certainly did not appear all that sane. The clothes Yang had described as being “as lesbian as possible while still matiching that color scheme of yours” were also surprisingly nice, not that she would admit that to anyone, least of all Yang.

Speaking of, why is Yang so infuriatingly hot? And yet simultaneously infuriatingly infuriating. No one in Atlas had been so blase as to openly flirt with Weiss, except for those whose presence was arranged for by her father, in other words, men, whose advances were obviously unwelcome. The way that Yang casually and constantly threw compliments her way was unsettling, though not strictly in a bad way. It was, at the very least, a new experience.

Only after multiple stops to purchase essentials do they return to their base of operations, and all the while Yang and Ruby happily discussed food for the night’s meal. It’s dishes Weiss has never heard of before, likely designed for quantity over quality. She’s hungry enough that she can only bring herself to complain a little bit, but not to ask what exactly is used in the making of these dishes.

“Alright, you’re helping me cook.” Yang practically drags Weiss into the kitchen as soon as their miscellaneous purchases are all put away.

“Now what?” Weiss glares at Yang, increasingly tired of being drug around by her. “I ought to leave you floating in the air and luxuriate in the privacy and silence of my room.”

“I won’t stop you if you insist, but I do have a good reason.” Yang’s voice was oddly warm as she spoke. “I need a second pair of hands to cook dinner, and it doesn’t matter how experienced they are. The reason behind why I want you specifically is so that Ruby and Blake can have a little bit of time to themselves, and because I want to make sure you’re doing alright. It’s probably a big change, being down here, and I’ve given you a little bit of shit over it, but I want to make sure you’re comfortable, and if I can I want to help you adjust.” 

So that’s how it is. Weiss sighs, and leans against the counter. She’s convinced Yang is serious, and once again, it’s unsettling just how upfront she’s being about her intentions. “You have already done a great deal to alleviate one of my ongoing troubles. I couldn’t possibly ask you for more, nor tell you more.” The fact that her teammates were almost aggressively accepting of her sexuality was both comforting and confusing.

“I’d like it if you asked regardless, but needing secrecy is fair.” Yang just smiles gently before she begins to pull out ingredients. “You’re sticking around?”

“Yes, I am.” Weiss carefully rolls up her sleeves and stands beside Yang. “What do you need me to do?”

“Do you know how to use a stove?”

“No.”

“Okay then” Yang thrusts a large metal pot into Weiss’ hands, “fill this three fifths of the way up with water and leave it on the counter.”

“Understood.” Weiss’ eyes wander as she waits for the tap to fill the pot with enough water, and she accidentally catches a glimpse of the way that Yang’s booty shorts hug her ass as she’s bent over to grab something from the refrigerator.

“Are you okay with the flirting?” Yang abruptly asks as she places ingredients on the counter.

“The what?”

“My flirting with you. It seems like you enjoy it, but I want to stop if it’s making you uncomfortable. Consent is the sexiest thing of all in my book.” Yang shuts off the tap in a way that’s almost gentle. “Also, that’s too much water, I’ll handle it.”

“I’m not entirely comfortable with it,” Weiss begins uncertainly, “but at the same time I enjoy it. I appreciate receiving wanted attention of that kind.” She cautiously wraps her arms around Yang’s torso in a light hug. She’s warm. “Thank you. For asking, and for existing.”

“Anytime princess, anytime.” Yang returns the hug with an equal amount of pressure. “And feel free to consider me your emotional support Yang.”

“I will consider it.” Weiss lets go of Yang only reluctantly as she goes to handle some new and equally arcane aspect of cooking.

They spend the rest of the time it takes to cook talking amicably about nothing in particular. Yang explains most of what she’s doing, and Weiss is able to follow along well enough. It’s somehow an enjoyable process, despite Yang’s presence, the smell at least is very interesting, appealing in ways similar to the food she’s had before, yet different due to its incomplete nature.

Yang grunted as she closed the oven on their large creation. The dish looks heavy enough that Weiss wouldn’t be able to lift it, which makes sense, given that it’s for four people. “Alright, I got the rest. Good work, and thanks.” She gestures for Weiss to head out as she sets a timer.

Weiss nods, then makes her way around the corner that separates the kitchen from the living room, only to shriek at the sight that greets her. “What the hell!”

On the couch, Ruby straddles Blake’s lap, their lips locked together in an intense kiss. Ruby practically jumps and rubs her head tenderly at Weiss’ sudden shout. “Ahhh.” She grimaces and shudders as if in pain. “Please don’t do that again.”

“Don’t do it again?” Weiss glares at the pair, who don’t even have the decency to separate themselves from each other. “What about you?”

“What about us?” Blake looks at Weiss from an upside-down point of view, still perfectly calm as she runs her hands along Ruby’s sides.

“Your behavior is utterly indecent!” Weiss furiously points at the offending hands and faces. “Scandalous, even.” She shakes her head.

“We’re literally just kissing, and there’s no one here to care.” Ruby tilts her head curiously.

“That’s...” Weiss trailed off. “You could at least be less handsy with each other.” She huffs.

“If it makes you uncomfortable, then sure. Just try not to scream next time.” Blake’s ears twitch pointedly as she gently removes Ruby from her torso and sits normally.

“You!” Weiss turns around and points a finger at Yang, who stands idly by with an amused look on her face. “You wanted them to be alone for the purposes of this... this... canoodling!”

“Weiss.” Yang gently but firmly puts a hand on Weiss’ shoulder. “We all live here, so you need to chill out about some of these things, or you’re going to drive yourself crazy. Besides, think of it as something to help you get used to not even public displays of gay affection.”

“I...” Weiss narrows her eyes thoughtfully at Yang. “Right. I apologize, I am indeed not acclimated to this, and my response was anapotistic.” She removes Yang’s hand from her shoulder after a moment, as it grows uncomfortable, then inclines her head in acknowledgement. She makes one last comment to Ruby. “For now, do try to exercise slightly more restraint than that in places where I may see you.”

“Alright.” Ruby smiles and cuddles complacently into Blake’s side with a small, cute sigh. It’s sweet, in a way, but at the same time concerns and attitudes taught for a lifetime grind insistently in the back of Wiess’ mind.

For her own sake as much as that of the others in the room, Weiss opts to retreat to her new bedroom, rather than forcibly attempt to adjust her instincts.

###### Yang

Things are getting inevitably closer to being underway. Tomorrow, Ruby will perform Weiss’ surgery, and she’ll recover from that before the end of the day, meaning that at that point it will be time for Blake to help find them a job. Yang grabs herself a glass of dumb bitch juice while she’s waiting for dinner to be ready because she can’t feel the effects of the drink from before anymore.

“Fucking hell.” Yang sighs for no particular reason as she sits down with a beer at the end of the couch not occupied by her sister and company.

“Are you okay?” Blake inquires gently.

“Nope.” Yang pops the p as she answers, then lets herself be swallowed up by the couch with her drink and her scroll, currently open to a nice, harmless book. The knot of stress in her stomach that’s been growing for the past few days already starts to ease a little as she takes a swig.

“What’s up?” Blake doesn’t know to leave well enough alone.

“You don’t want to know.” Yang buries her face in her scroll, hoping Blake will get the message. She can feel Ruby’s concerned gaze even as she tries to concentrate on reading.

“Yang...” Ruby starts to say something, but before she can get anything else out Yang stands up, shoves her scroll in her pocket, and storms out of the room. She doesn’t want to have this conversation.

Not until she slams the door to the communal room and locks it behind her does she realize that she forgot her beer. She’s tempted to go back for it, but she probably wouldn’t be able to avoid spilling her guts to Ruby a second time. 

Unwillingly, her gaze drifts to the large broadsword that hangs from the wall. She’d hoped that retiring it there meant that she wouldn't have to use it again, but it was probably always inevitable that it would come back to her. She can’t stand to be in the same room as it.

With a snarl aimed at the world around her in general, Yang leaves the room and retreats to the only safe area she can think of right now, Weiss’ room. “Weiss, can I come in? I need to be in a room that doesn’t have Ruby or a weapon in it right now.”

Following a tension-fraught pause, Weiss opens the door and gestures for Yang to enter. “Don’t make yourself too comfortable.” It’s enough to convince Yang that there’s a spark of warmth under that typically frosty demeanor after all.

“Thanks.” Yang nods and sits on the only available piece of furniture, the bed. Weiss doesn’t immediately object, so it must be fine with her. In fact, she seems utterly distracted.

“Fun? You want to withhold cosmic secrets from me for the sake of _fun_?” Weiss mutters to absolutely nobody.

“Are you okay?” The irony of the question isn’t lost on Yang as she looks up from her scroll.

“Yes. This is simply a matter that you cannot understand as a mundane being.” Weiss dismissively waves her hand in Yang’s direction, then visibly blanches. “You do not have permission to do that!”

“You’re going to have to explain, because otherwise I’m just going to think that the magic has made you crazy.”

Weiss rolls her eyes. “Salem, if you don’t mind?” An intimidating woman suddenly appears in the room with them. “Yang, this is Salem, a spirit currently in my service.” 

Salem stares at Weiss in a way that radiates disapproval.

“Salem is a spirit with whom I have made an indefinite arrangement to our mutual benefit.” Weiss rolls her eyes.

“Much better.” Salem stretches her nonexistent muscles dramatically and proceeds to disregard Yang’s presence. “Are you certain however? You would be able to feel everything just as well as I.”

“I am not letting you use my body to get laid, technicalities be damned. I will dissolve the contract if you try.” Weiss glares.

“Very well, very well, I will respect your bodily autonomy, even if your prudishness is disappointing, and unbecoming of your bloodline. Honestly, the state humanity has reduced itself to.” Salem shakes her head. 

“This is a really interesting conversation, but would you mind just doing it telepathically or something? I’m trying to read.” Yang waves. “Also, I really don’t want to know about whatever weird magical kink stuff is happening here.”

“She is the lascivious one!” Weiss gestures at Salem, seemingly near her wit’s end.

“You know what? On second thought, please keep bickering, it’s really helping me forget about my issues.” Yang settles in expectantly. Either they stop and she can just read, or they keep going and she can watch some presumably ancient spirit argue with her new housemate. Win-win.

“Alternatively, I could strive to support you in the same fashion you have supported me.” Weiss muses, though her demeanor almost makes the statement feel like a threat.

“That would be a very prudent course of action.” For some reason, Salem winks at Yang before disappearing back to the Astral Plane.

“That’s not necessary.” Yang clears her throat and avoids looking at Weiss. “I want to be away from Ruby because I don’t want to talk about it with her.”

“With her, you say?” Weiss raises an eyebrow, immediately latching onto the source of Yang’s reluctance. “So you do want to talk about it with someone?”

Yang closes her scroll. Weiss is unfortunately right. Furthermore, confiding in her makes the most sense out of all the people around her, considering that they’re the two people who are going to be on the front line of their work. “Fine.” She sighs, and leans back in her bed. She doesn’t want to have to look at Weiss as she says it. “Not a word of this gets to Ruby, understand?” She's the big sister, she has to be the strong one, ready to handle the violence.

“I am quite capable of keeping things in confidence.” Weiss’ voice is surprisingly warm as she takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

“So, there’s a reason why this whole doctor business is a bit half-assed. You’ve been around all day, we haven’t had a customer in a while, even though the margins on cyberware and such are pretty good for us. I didn’t take the time to network a steady clientele before we quit shadowrunning and started this. It was a snap decision, because I couldn’t take it anymore.” Yang pulls her knees up to her chest. She doesn’t want to do this. What exactly “this” is is hard to figure out.

“You couldn’t handle shadowrunning?”

“I’m the muscle. I’m the one who’s getting shot at. I’m the one who has to get blood all over their hands if things go wrong and we need to kill witnesses or fight our way out, alongside a magician like you. Ruby’s killed people too, but she doesn’t seem to really mind. I think it’s easier for her, she’s just watching everything on a viewscreen. It’s dissociated.” Yang curls in on herself more tightly. “It’s not even a moral thing, I’m just doing a job, and sometimes people try to kill me for it. It’s more selfish than that. I don’t want to enjoy it again. I don’t want to get addicted again.” She can’t hold back the tears anymore. There’s some comfort in the fact that she manages to keep quiet, and that her face is in a position that Weiss shouldn’t be able to see them.

“I see.” Weiss’ voice is light as she moves a little bit closer to Yang. “There are spells that can alleviate addictions, and thus help to overcome them.”

Yang grabs Weiss’ pillow and hugs it against her body. “You’re probably going to need them.” It feels as if it’s inevitable that it’s going to rear its head again. 

“That is unfortunate, but I swear to you Yang, I will stop at nothing to avoid a fight. And a-I keep my promises.” Weiss’ voice is firm, and oddly close to Yang’s head. 

“Thanks.” Yang sighes. “There’s no way that’s going to be enough though, things never go right on a mission.”

“We’ll see. Remember, you have three very magically powerful individuals working with you, in a Hive that no corp meaningfully cares about.”

“Three?”

“Myself, Blake, and Salem. It is my belief that technomancy is a form of magic that simply manifests itself differently.”

“Does Salem count as working with us? She seems...” Yang isn’t sure about Salem at all. She’s very strange, but not in the way she would have expected from a spirit.

“She’s listening to our conversation from the Astral Plane.” Weiss’ voice lilts with gentle amusement.

“She seems great. I’m a big fan of the claws, very pointy, although it seems like it would make it hard to finger anyone.” Yang yelps as Salem suddenly appears before her.

“And that is another reason why I have made the arrangement that I have.” Salem dramatically flicks her hair in the direction of the kitchen. “However, if you wallow in angst any longer your meal will be burnt.”

“Shit!” Yang finds the strength to get up and hastily wipe away her tears with her shirt. It doesn’t matter if someone can tell she’s been crying, not as much as food. “Thanks Weiss, if I thought you’d be okay with it I’d kiss you.” Without waiting for a response, she dashes out to the kitchen. No way are her issues ruining a delicious and expensive meal.


	6. A Vision of the Past

###### Yang

A loud yawn announces Weiss’ presence just as Yang is grabbing some breakfast. Yang looks at Weiss, and does a double take. She’s only wearing a nightgown, one that leaves large amounts of soft, creamy skin along her neck, shoulders, and belly exposed. 

“Morning, Yang.” Weiss casually bent over and retrieved a glass jar Yang hadn’t known was present in her pantry, as well as a small metal object that nearly resembled an ice cream scoop, and a small pot. “Enjoying the view?”

“How’d you sleep?” Yang barely manages to avoid stammering or staring as she concentrates on food.

“Not as well as I would have with a companion.” Already armed with whatever it is she intends to cook with, Weiss trails a finger along Yang’s collarbone, sending a shiver down her spine.

“What?” Yang’s mind blanks, and Weiss’ gaze is suddenly directed elsewhere.

“Oh, hush. A little bit of flirting never hurt anyone, and furthermore, I am doing you a favor.”

“Wait,” Yang’s eyes narrow, “ _Salem?_ ” She steps back and clears her throat. “What are you doing in Weiss’ body?”

Salem sighs heavily. “We have an arrangement by which I borrow her body for an amount of time each week in order to indulge in material pleasures such as food and, if Weiss weren’t so restricted by this ludicrous sense of morality that I really must educate her away from, sex.”

“Right. Okay then. Good luck with that, I guess.” Yang barely manages to refrain from laughing, but a little giggle still escapes.

“What is it that you find so amusing?”

“I never thought that it was possible for magical beings to be horny. It seems sort of silly.”

“Physically, no, it is not. I am emotionally horny. It has been millenia since I have had the pleasure of so much as kissing a woman.” Salem gestures for Yang to step aside from the sink and fills the pot with water.

“I can respect that.” Yang nods. As every lesbian ever has said, girls pretty.

“Care to take action to correct it?” Salem puts the pot on the stove and sets it to boil as if she hasn’t just coolly asked for permission to kiss Yang. At least she seems to know how to use a stove.

“I might be tempted, but I don’t think Weiss would be very happy about that.” 

“On the contrary, she would be ecstatic, even if she would never admit it.”

“As sexy as you and Weiss are, consent is sexier. So you’ll just have to wait until she says it’s okay, as herself, not by passing the message through you.” Yang can’t say that she doesn’t have a thing for older women. That Salem is apparently thousands of years older than her is only the kind of weird complication that she normally assumes is going to inevitably come up with anything involving magic.

“You find me attractive then, do you?” Salem briefly cups Yang’s chin, Weiss’ fingers burning coolly against her skin. “My self, or merely Weiss’ body?”

“B-both.” Yang suddenly realizes that Weiss’ eyes are pure black, probably because of Salem’s presence.

“Such bravado, and yet you melt so easily under the slightest degree of carefully applied pressure, I wonder if that applies to your behavior in the bedroom as well?” Salem slowly lets go of Yang’s face, leaving her flushed as she drops something into the boiling water and turns off the burner on the stove.

“What are you making?” Yang looks at what appears to be a bunch of dried leaves that is currently soaking in the water, both curious and desperate to change the topic of conversation.

“Tea. A delicacy by your modern standards, though it was once quite commonplace. Care to join me?” Salem eyes the pot carefully, the water now diluted to a golden brown color. “It would be wasteful to only make a single cup with these leaves, when allowing it to steep longer will make a larger amount of equally high quality tea.”

“Sure. Doesn’t Weiss mind that you’re making her tea though?” Yang shrugs and grabs her bowl of cereal.

“On this particular morn, we are united in our desire for tea.” Salem fetches two mugs and evenly splits the tea between them. It’s still steaming. “A shame that there is no cream to be had.”

“Yeah, no, that shit’s expensive.” Yang’s pretty sure that no one in Patch can afford cream, and that it isn’t sold anywhere.

“Indeed. Sugar, fortunately, is not.” Salem scoops a teaspoon of sugar into her mug, and two into Yang’s.

“Sugar’s easy to chemically reproduce without having to actually farm anything.” Yang takes the mug and goes to the table in step with Salem.

“Chemically reproduced?” Salem tisks as she sits down, suddenly eyeing the tea cautiously. “If it ruins this I will be even more cross with humanity than I already am.”

“It’s good enough, probably. Not like I’ve ever had the real thing.” Yang sighes. “I’m too sexy to live under capitalism.” She takes a sip of tea. It’s very... neutral, except for the sugar.

“I concur, you are far too sexy to live under capitalism.” Salem smirks at Yang, then sees Yang's lukewarm reaction to the tea. “Tea _is_ something of an acquired taste.” She sips her own tea, a nostalgic expression on her face. “Your world was better once.”

“When?” Yang sits up a little bit straighter, her eyes wide with interest.

“Long ago. The Weave and the material plane are like two sides of the same coin, and when one suffers, so does the other. The Weave has been terribly fragmented for a long time now.” Salem sighes. “The way you mortals collectively behave is no longer understandable. You reflect yourselves in the blood of all the beings you slay, and there is so much time to kill.”

“What happened to change things?”

“That, I will not tell. It is for you to discover, and though my purpose here is currently to assist Weiss, I refuse to alter the course of events by revealing things forgotten to your society.” Salem takes another sip of tea, and moans slightly. “This is wonderful.”

“The tea, or the conversation?” Yang tries some more tea, and this time she manages to recognise and appreciate some of the more subtle flavors.

“Both. The intricacies created by the limitations of verbal communication fascinate me. All communication is telepathic within the Weave, and as such, rather dully perfect. Flirting, for instance, is quite satisfying a feat of verbosity.” Salem eyes Yang hungrily from over her mug.

“My tongue is as dexterous as it is sharp.” Yang momentarily sticks out her tongue and wriggles her eyebrows.

“We will see.” Salem rolls her eyes affectionately, a smile ghosting her lips.

“You seem rather confident about that.” Yang leans back in her chair, eyebrow quirked.

“When you grow as old as I am you get a feeling for these kinds of things.” Salem sips contentedly at her tea. “The passage of time is a fickle thing, and with it comes bountiful growth. The four of you have potential in many ways.”

“Thanks?” Yang isn’t really sure what to think about the comment. It seems odd, given that she’s pretty sure Salem saw her at her worst the previous day in Weiss’ room.

“I am simply stating a fact. Observing whether you grow into that potential or die trying will be entertaining at worst.”

“But you’re here to help as well, right?”

“Of course, but in that respect I intend simply to carry out orders, not correct any fatal decisions you may make. If I may cast a spell on you, there is something I wish to say without Weiss overhearing.” 

“Sure.” Yang watches as Salem reaches out her hand, and waits.

“Take my hand. I need to touch you to cast it.”

“Oh!” Yang grasps the hand, and an instant later a series of images and words appear in her mind.

 _Most magicians see their spirits as little more than tools._ A man, standing in a dilapidated wooden shack, stands before a large summoning circle, demanding a spirit do him service. _For those who treat me as such, I will be no more._ Salem and a white haired woman lay together in a bed in a room made entirely of shining metal. The entire structure surrounding them thrums with unseen power and is filled with strange objects.

Yang blinks as the visions fade away. “Why show me that?”

“Why indeed?” Salem coolly refuses to comment further.

“Hey guys, what’s for breakfast? I’m starving.” Blake walks into the room, hand in hand with Ruby.

“Just grab whatever Ruby tells you is breakfast food from the pantry. Except cookies, don’t let her tell you cookies are breakfast, because they aren’t.” Yang pauses a moment, then clarifies. “Cookies are round slightly crunchy baked goods with brown chunks in them.”

“Ruby, Weiss wishes for me to tell you that she will be ready for her operation right after lunch.” Salem inclines her head towards Ruby, who stares back confused. 

“But you’re Weiss?” Ruby rubs her eyes tiredly, and squints at Salem.

“This is Salem right now, a spirit who sometimes borrows Weiss’ body and helps her out with magic stuff in return.”

“Okay, cool, let her know I’ll have everything ready then, yeah.” Ruby nods and leads Blake into the kitchen.

###### Weiss

The beginning of the day was very unsatisfactory. The previous night, Salem had informed Weiss of her possession five hours in advance, by means of inserting herself into Weiss’ dream, meaning that she was not able to so much as warn her housemates about what’s going to happen, a lack of foresight that was her fault for not telling them in the first place, but that doesn’t matter anymore.

Eventually, Weiss is going to have to be in the same room as Yang. The thought is mortifying. Salem was very, very correct about many things during that conversation, including that Weiss would not have complained quite as much as she could have had she kissed Yang. Possibly not at all. But, she has no intention of admitting such a thing to Yang.

“There. Now remember, don’t heal yourself with magic, or else it’ll go back to the way it was before. When it stops hurting you can take off the bandages, though cosmetically it won’t settle into the way it’s supposed to look for a day or two.” Ruby steps back and pats Weiss on the shoulder, presumably looking over her work one last time, despite it being covered in bandages. 

With a quick touch on Ruby’s arm, Weiss casts a simple spell to link their minds. _I will keep it in mind. Thank you._ Ruby jumps in surprise at hearing a voice in her head. She would be very uncomfortable about not being able to see anything because of the bandages over her face, but fortunately, she doesn’t strictly need her eyes to get around. Turning her sight to the Astral Plane is enough to push herself off of Ruby’s operating table and navigate her way to the door. 

“You can see? And talk?” Ruby’s surprise bleeds over across their telepathic link, and Weiss deliberately sends back the emotional equivalent of rolling her eyes.

 _Magic._ Weiss needs a few seconds to fumble for the doorknob, but she opens it and releases the spell as she makes her way for the kitchen. She’s hungry after what Ruby claimed was about six hours of unconsciousness. 

Fortunately, Yang is in her shared bedroom with Blake, having forgone making dinner in favor of working together to find them their first job. Nevertheless, 

It’s not until she enters the kitchen that she realizes the blurry vision of inanimate objects she can see from the Astral Plane isn’t at all enough to eat food, even if Yang had already left her something reheatable to eat. The word reheatable still terrifies her, the prospect that food could be eaten at a time when it was not freshly made was a new and concerning concept, but the fact that food is better than no food is surprisingly easy to get used to.

“Oh yeah, food.” Ruby appears behind Weiss and starts pulling out a container with food in it. “I probably should have moved around your bandages so that you can eat and talk because your mouth is fine. Here’s some leftover lasagna.” There’s a sound of a plastic lid being removed, and then the microwave. “Let me move those around a bit so you can eat.” Ruby starts touching the bandages around Weiss’ mouth, and manages to move them around enough for her to open her mouth.

“Thank you.” Weiss comments dryly.

“You’re welcome.” Ruby chirps, completely missing Weiss tone. “Now come over and I’ll feed you.”

“You’ll what?” Weiss squeaks, very grateful that her face is hidden. 

“Oh, right, magic vision.” Ruby sighes. 

“Actually, my ability to see inanimate objects is not quite fine enough to reliably handle utensils.” Weiss sighs for entirely different reasons. “So I suppose that I will need your assistance.”

“Great! I mean... okay.” Ruby can be heard quickly rubbing her hands together. “Sit down and just let me feed you.” Her voice is almost singsong as she flits about with the food, waiting impatiently for Weiss to be ready.

“You may proceed.” Trepidation sets in as Weiss patiently takes a seat. She considers letting her perception of the Astral Plane end so that she doesn’t have to see Ruby through this humiliating act, but it would be better to be able to see the incoming food.

“Okay, open up.” Ruby makes a cutesy noise as she lifts a fork before Weiss’ mouth.

“Ru-” As Weiss is about to remind Ruby that she is perfectly aware of the general location of any imminent food, said food is stuck into her mouth. The fork remains until Weiss closes her mouth around it, keeping the food in her mouth as it leaves. Not until she finishes chewing and swallowing is Weiss able to finally retort. “I am perfectly aware of the food’s general location, you dolt. You do not need to tell me when to open my mouth, especially not with such a demeanor.”

“I know, I just wanted to do that anyway.” Ruby laughs without a hint of malice. “It’s fun, and you're cute.”

“Aren’t you already involved with Blake?” 

“Yeah, a bit. So?” 

Weiss’ eye would twitch if she could open it. “Does that not make it inappropriate for you to make such comments about me?” It’s meant to be a rhetorical question.

“Of course not, although we haven’t actually talked about that sort of thing yet.” Ruby stops feeding Weiss as she becomes lost in her thoughts. “Whoops, forgot about that.”

“What... Actually, no. I do not even wish to know what sort of new horror you could possibly be talking about. Just shovel food into my bloody face.” Weiss keeps her lips tightly sealed once she is done speaking, not even slightly trusting that Ruby won’t take her too literally and apply too much force with the fork.

“Your face isn’t bloody, actually. Just sort of swollen. It needs pressure applied or it’ll heal weird.” 

“That was a figure of speech. It means feed me already, I am starving.”

“You’re cranky too.” The pout in Ruby’s voice is blatantly audible. “That’s fine though. Who’s not cranky when they’re hungry, food is just so great.” At long last, she resumes feeding Weiss. It is humiliating, but better than hunger. Paradoxically, she knew hunger.

Not long after Weiss settles into a routine that involves a fortunately minimal amount of chatting, Yang and Blake begin to leave their more communal room and come to the living area. She hurriedly makes Ruby stop feeding her and instead pretends to have been eating independently. Letting Ruby see her in this state is one thing, but Weiss expects Yang would make a comment that she does not want to hear.

“Hey guys,” Yang greets them vaguely as she enters the room. Even without deliberately analysing her, Weiss can tell something is wrong. “We found something nice and promising, and well paying.”

“It’s a hit, that’s all Mr. Johnson wants to say so far. We’re supposed to meet them in person about the rest, ideally in a few hours.” Blake shrugs. “Not really what I would have liked to do, but I guess we’ll take what we can get.”

Weiss frowns. She had hoped for something more dignified or subtle than that, but given that they have nothing in the way of a reputation, dirty work is probably all they can expect to get. “Is that really necessary?”

“Trust me, we need money. Unless you want to pay for all our living expenses until we do find something more to your taste, princess.” There’s a subtle note of futile hope in Yang’s statement.

“Of course not.” Weiss sighs. She could do so for a while, but it would be a poor idea. A large stash of money is an invaluable resource, not to be wasted in such a manner.

“Great!” Ruby claps her hands together enthusiastically, completely unfazed by the nature of their work. “You should be fine to leave by then.”

“Great.” Yang echoes hollowly. “That’s great.”

“Do you both already know how to use subvocal microphones?” Ruby pulls out a box of small electronic objects. “It’s not too hard to figure out if we have to teach you. Here, Weiss. I’m going to put one on you.” Her hands wrap a thin cord around the base of Weiss’ throat, and she feels a small, metallic object settle into the hollow of her throat. “I already configured them to link to these earpieces and they’ll automatically not transmit if you speak at a normal volume.”

“You will have to teach me. I suppose you can’t put in the earpiece yet, however?” Weiss swallows, the mic sitting slightly uncomfortably against her neck. At least it isn’t exerting any pressure.

“Nah, you’ll be fine though.” Ruby pats Weiss’ shoulder. It’s oddly comforting. “Basically, what you’re doing is talking without your mouth or any air. You can start by making some small whale noises.”

###### Blake

Everyone was momentarily distracted by Weiss’ new scar just as they were preparing to leave and meet their Mr. Johnson. It stood out against her otherwise pristine features beautifully.

Yang is the first to whistle appreciatively. “Nice work Rubes.”

“That scar really suits you.” Ruby nods as she double checks the integrity of Weiss’ face.

“It feels strange to have such a thing by the design of a surgery. It feels as if I didn’t earn it, even though ordinarily magical healing would remove any scars I may have.” Weiss runs a hand over her eye uncertainly.

“Whatever you did to get into Patch beat you up badly and left you with multiple broken bones. I’d say that you must have done something that justifies that sort of badge of honor.” Blake smiles in Weiss’ direction. She doesn’t have much in the way of visible scars, unlike most of the White Fang. She hadn’t done anything to earn them herself. Now, she would be healed magically if something scar-worthy were to ever happen to her. It was almost a shame, but the other advantages, such as not being as likely to die, were a great tradeoff. 

“My escape wasn’t exactly a valiant one, but it was quite dangerous and daring.” Weiss nods to herself distractedly as Ruby finishes her inspection and they all make their way into the aboveground garage which contains the van and most of Crescent Rose.

“How did you escape whatever you were running away from, anway?” Blake asks, with nothing better to do until Ruby finishes loading her drones into various hidden compartments inside and outside of the van from which they can presumably deploy. The sound of Ruby cooing over her babies is a little distracting, but also very cute.

“The tube system. I protected myself from the acceleration as best I could with multiple spells and a few other tricks of the trade.” Weiss shrugs, as if it were nothing.

“That’s... actually really badass. We need to have a fistfight sometime and see who’s stronger.” Yang pounds her fist into her open palm, a manic grin on her face.

“I assure you, given thirty seconds to prepare I will be far stronger, physically, though obviously I lack technique.” Weiss looks at Yang in a way that only distantly approaches a glare as Ruby gestures for everyone to get in the van.

“Should be pretty interesting then.” Yang nods as she climbs in with everyone else. “Alright, so business. I’ll handle most of the talking with Mr. Johnson, since I know the protocols and negotiation.”

“Actually,” Weiss practically preens herself as she objects, “I’ve spent my entire life being taught to negotiate in cutthroat situations. I am certain that I am capable of extracting more money out of this man than you are.”

Yang stares at Weiss flatly. “We don’t want to squeeze them for all they’re worth, we want to develop trust and a reputation. Also, we have no way of knowing our client’s gender.”

“What? But you called them Mr. Johnson?” Blake suspects that she missed something somewhere, in terms of background information.

“That’s slang. Every client is just Mr. Johnson when we’re talking about them, so that someone can’t just overhear what their name is. They usually don’t tell you their name, although sometimes that’s unavoidable. It depends on the job.” Yang rolls her eyes. “Which is exactly why I need to handle the talking here. You two literally shouldn’t speak unless you’re spoken to.”

“Fine.” Weiss grimaces. “I will limit my commentary to information about my capabilities and magic, until I have a better understanding of this culture.”

“I’m sure it must be hard for you to not say things.” Blake lightly nudges Weiss with an elbow.

“That is a preposterous conception.” Weiss turns her glare to Blake.

“No, you’ve definitely got a tendency to always try and get the last word.” Blake watches Weiss coolly.

“I refuse to even dignify this conversation further by responding to that.” Weiss huffs and turns her head away.

“You can prove you don’t by just not saying anything else for the rest of this trip.” Blake does her best not to laugh at Weiss. There’s something endearing about her obstinacy.

“I have nothing to prove to you.” 

“Okay.” Blake drops the conversation and relaxes smugly into her seat, point proven, only for another question for Yang to come across her mind. “Are all four of us going in to meet them?”

“Yeah, if it was only me and Weiss’ we'd look like a strike team. Bringing the more vulnerable members with us is expected as a show of trust. Clients tend to have bodyguards too, and we’re meeting in a public place here, so nothing should be going down. Speaking of which, we’re here.” Yang gestures to the van door and they all shuffle out with Ruby slightly behind them.

Probably the only complaint Blake has about Patch is how cramped everything is. This is something that’s especially noticeable in businesses, where as many people as possible need to share a small space. The bar that Mr. Johnson had them come to is cramped, but at least it’s pretty clean. It doesn’t exactly seem upscale, but it’s not trashy either. The background noise is a dull roar of conversation enough to give Blake a slight headache, but probably easily ignorable to anyone else.

“Blake, would you hold my hand?” Ruby’s voice plays in Blake’s earpiece. The subvocal mics make it harder to emote vocally, but her voice still sounds rather strained.

“Something up?” Blake subvocalizes back as she takes Ruby’s hand. It’s still an odd sensation, the metal lurking under the flesh, but there’s something comfortable about it as well.

“No one here is awakened, or a technomancer.” Weiss cuts into the conversation. “Furthermore, that is a conversation you can have at a normal volume.”

“I can’t, actually. I wouldn’t be able to understand anything over all this background noise. I have auditory dyslexia.” Ruby squeezes Blake's hand, smiling up at her. “And I don’t really like being around a bunch of people.”

It doesn’t seem like there are that many people in the bar, even by Blake’s standards. Maybe twenty, even if they are a bit densely packed. It is nice to know she’s not alone in not caring for the press of people around her, especially as she notices that some of them are staring at her. She can’t see any Faunus at all, and unconsciously, the two of them drift into the wake of Yang and Weiss, who carry themselves much more confidently.

Almost as an afterthought, prompted by Weiss’ check for other magicians or technomancers, Blake briefly jumped into the Matrix and made sure that there were no suspicious individuals attempting to run silently, as well as gain access to a few nearby security cameras. Ruby would be able to guide both of them. 

“I don’t see any suspicious activity on the Matrix.” Blake subvocalized after just a few seconds of checking. Time sort of accelerates in hotsim VR, an effect partially dependent on how good your equipment is. Since hers is her brain, it’s faster than most, but not by that much. Just in case, she asks Samantha to keep an eye on the security feeds for her before turning her full attention back to reality.

Navigating through a few people, Yang casually approaches the bar and makes an order. “Can I get a strawberry sunrise, no ice?”

Rather than grab a glass, the bartender just nods, and gestures for Yang to follow him. In turn, Yang gestures for everyone else to follow.

Curious, Blake follows Yang and the bartender to a back hallway, where there’s a row of booths enclosed in thin walls with sliding doors inlaid in them. The man gestures wordlessly to one of the booths and takes his leave. 

The four of them shuffle in and take seats across from Mr. Johnson, a battered-looking woman who eyes them all appraisingly as they enter, a margarita casually held in her left hand. After taking a moment to stare at each of them, she speaks. “You kids seem like you’ve wandered into the wrong booth.”

Blake nearly gets up, but Ruby’s hand stops her. Ruby gestures for her to stay, and she realizes what’s going on. The four of them probably don’t look much like a shadowrunning team, especially not in their drap, inconspicuous work apparel, and with no obvious weapons, though Blake and Yang both have concealed pistols.

“You’re Mr. Johnson, aren’t you?” Yang is unfazed, cooly leaning back into her seat in the face of scrutiny.

Mr. Johnson clicks her tongue disapprovingly. “Of course you’re the right people. Whatever, as long as you do the job right it doesn’t matter much to me.” She pulls out a wallet and hands Yang a business card. “This job’s personal, so I might as well give you my number if you absolutely need to contact me directly. Such as if you fuck it up.”

“I assure you, that won’t be an issue.” Yang glanced at the business card, then put it in her pocket. “Pleasure doing business with you.” She subvocalized as she gestured for everyone else to begin filing out of the booth. “She wrote what we need to know on the card. And no Weiss, no negotiation. The price is fair and agreed upon.”

As they begin to file out, Blake feels a strange tension in the air.

“I need you to do this right.” Mr. Johnson’s expression momentarily breaks into something intense as she digs her fingers into the table. “Are you absolutely certain you’re all cut out for this? Damn it, you’re just kids.”

“Hey,” Yang’s voice is gentle and firm as she turns back to Mr. Johnson, “we have the skills, and the will. We’ll do the job. You’re in good hands.”

Mr. Johnson seems scared, and Blake feels the need to say something. “Trust us, we’ve all gone through some shit.” She nods in the woman’s direction, probably not as reassuring as Yang, but she’s pretty sure she’s telling the truth, even without knowing a whole lot about her teammates yet. 

What Blake says seems to get through to Mr. Johnson. She relaxes her grip slightly, then nods contemplatively in return. “That’s probably true, you do have that look about you. Just don’t screw it up for either of us.”

“We won’t.” Weiss comments resolutely as she herds everyone else out of the booth once again.

“Honestly, this is probably going to be pretty easy.” Yang subvocalizes as they walk away. “One civilian is basically nothing to us.”

“True. Invisibility is a valuable spell, so long as it isn’t seen through.” Weiss nods, subvocalizing in response.

“I’m probably not even going to need to do anything but drive us around.” Ruby sounds either relieved or disappointed. The mic system makes it so hard to really tell. “But what’s on that card, anyway?”

“We can look at it when we get back.” Blake stretches, releasing a bit of tension she hadn’t even noticed she had. “Honestly though, we should probably sleep first, assuming it isn’t urgent.” It’s been about eighteen hours since they last slept.

“Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.” Ruby squeezes Blake’s hand appreciatively as she steps away to get into the driver’s seat of the van. “It’s really easy for us to forget our sleep cycles, especially with work happening.”

“No problem.” Blake sits quietly over the course of the ride back to their base of operations, thinking. She doesn’t really like this part of the job, but, well, it’s not very different from what she was doing before with the White Fang. Gather intel that’s going to be used to kill one or more persons. Here though, things are more stable, and the quality of her life is skyrocketed, while the amount of fighting she’s assisting is probably reduced. Not to mention the potential for other, more harmless kinds of work. It’s a pretty good deal, and the company is good too. 

A small smile grows on her face as she thinks of Ruby, Weiss, and Yang. Yeah, they’re alright. She still misses Adam and Ilia though, idly, she wonders if she’ll ever see them again. Probably not, gangs can’t stay in one place for long in the Underhives. 

If only she could have brought them with her. Adam probably wouldn’t have wanted to come, but Ilia never liked the heat down there. Her somewhat reptilian skin was especially sensitive to the scathing atmospheric conditions. Maybe she could try, if she ever did see Ilia again.


End file.
